Underjorden (The Underworld)  

sonic art theatre for actor, prerecorded voices, clarinet, electric guitar, electronics

Text by Annika Nyman

Music and direction by Kent Olofsson

Dramaturge and director Jörgen Dahlqvist

Actor Malin Molin, Robert Ek clarinets, Stefan Östersjö guitars

First performance at Acusticum, Piteå 19 January 2023

In the Roman myth of Psyche and Cupid, the princess Psyche loses her lover after doing the forbidden: lighting the lamp and looking at the deity. In her attempts to find him, she is thwarted by her jealous mother-in-law, the goddess Venus, and is eventually forced to cross the River Styx, past the three-headed threshold guardian and down to Persephone, mistress of the realm of the dead.

The Underworld is an radioplay that travels inwards, downwards, to be devoured by darkness and the unknown. It is a journey through ancient and contemporary legends and myths and touches on the horror of realising the limits of existence, the fear of dissolution and the unbearable acceptance of one's own mortality.