IGGY LOND MALMBORG "Things in my mouth"

Iggy Lond Malmborg continues the dissection of the theatre situation and its relation to identificatory processes, following his two previous solo works: "b o n e r" (2014) and "Physics and Phantasma" (2017).

The focus of the new work "Things in my mouth" is the voice. Here the voice is not primary a biological ability but a learned, cultural phenomena; a cornerstone in the production and performance of so called "stable identities" – gender, race, class, sexual identity – on stage and within the social.

The voice, what an odd body part. We cannot see or touch it. In difference to the rest of our body it is not a constant, it’s not just there per se (whether we like it or not), the voice has to be produced; it takes an active choice and bodily work to bring it into the world and its very existence is ephemeral, it vanishes in the same moment as it can be heard. Meanwhile, it is the fundamental sign of life.
It is the link between the inside and the outside, hence its often read – just like the fingerprint – as unique. This piece claims that to be a misunderstanding, a phantasy about human autonomy. The expressions of the voice is instead read as something always-already there, that we are brought into.
It all begins (straight after the original trauma – birth) with an uncontrollable scream, one long vowel. As a kind of defence mechanism we domesticize the voice, we cut it up into a pre-set repertoire of sounds and phonemes that can be puzzled together into words, sentences, songs, whining, declarations of love etc. Unwanted sounds are cleansed away and forgotten. And now, every utterance, every sound that exit through our mouth is per definition something that has been said before. The human speech is nothing else than an echo, of generations of other speaking mouths.


Or perhaps an echo of the voice as such. Something that was there before us, before we were born. Perhaps even before the human being itself. Perhaps the voice is a virus, the language a symptom, and we are nothing but host animals.

Iggy Lond Malmborg (1987) is an actor and performance maker based in Malmö and Tallinn. Though a formation in traditional acting (the Theatre academy of Malmö) his pieces span over a wide range of aesthetics and styles, both solo and collaborative work. His main artistic interest is to use the performance event as a model onto which the pieces discourse directly can be applied. By using strategies that can be compared to minimalism, he sheds light on the politics of theatre and read it as a hierarchical machine with (unconscious) patterns of inclusion and exclusion. 
 He is currently touring with "b o n e r" (2014), "99 Words for Void" (duo with Maike Lond Malmborg, 2015), "Physics and Phantasma" (2017) and "Things in my mouth" (2019). All which are made in close collaboration with Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Tallinn). The works have been presented in festivals and venues such as: Spielart (Münich), Baltic Circle (Helsinki), TnBA (Bordeaux), Baltoscandal (Rakvere), Auawirleben (Bern), Nanterre-Amandiers (Paris), FFT (Düsseldorf), Bastard Festival (Trondheim), Sophiensäle (Berlin), Staatstheater Nürnberg, Nowy Teatr (Warsaw), Palm Off Fest (Prague) and Dublin Theatre Festival. 
Since 2009 he is collaborating with Johannes Schmit under the name White on White, during the season 17/18 they premiered “Fuck me ! (we didn’t make it)“ and "Tyskland" at Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin.

Concept, text, direction: Iggy Lond Malmborg
Performed by: Rea Lest, Iggy Lond Malmborg
Dramaturge: Johan Jönson
Technical solutions, sound, light: Kalle Tikas
Video design: Gloria Hao
Photos: Alissa Šnaider, Arne Hauge
Tailors: Helen Ananiassen, Liina Ananiassen
Production manager: Eneli Järs
Assistant: Mia Marie Bråthen
Co-production: Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Tallinn), Rosendal Teater (Trondheim), Black Box Teater (Oslo), BIT teatergarasjen (Bergen) and FFT (Düsseldorf)
In collaboration with: Inkonst (Malmö)
Supported by: Swedish Arts Council, Malmö city, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Premiere: 29 November 2019, Rosendal Teater (Trondheim)

Duration: 75'
The performance is in English.