HENRIK HELLSTENIUS

Social Behaviour is a music theatre performance/concert that explores the complexities of the social—the personal and public relationships that are difficult, our desires to attain what others have, the challenge of truly seeing «the other,» and not least, the struggle of collaborating with people we don’t understand or like. The themes revolve around the impossibility of working with those we dislike, the pleasure of hating those we oppose, the collective scapegoating process, idol/hatred figures, the intoxicating unity of an enthusiastic crowd, and the difficulty of telling the truth to people we fear.

The performance shifts between musical, textual, and visual perspectives. Its material is our desire, our envy, our urge to imitate others—the messy emotions we carry into every social encounter. The material is endless and seductive, holding within it the potential for both small and grand narratives.

Social Behaviour, Mimesis, and Desire combines instrumental music with movement, video, and texts by René Girard, Liv Heløe, Richard Sennett, Henrik Hellstenius, and others. The piece is written for the Alpaca Ensemble. Video and visual design are by Peter Knudsen.

“Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires. There are a finite number of things a person needs. But there are an infinite number of things to desire.”

— René Girard