A Plague in London (Die Pest in London)
Interdisciplinary Mixed-Media Performance | Orangerie Theater Cologne (2026)
Project Description: “A Plague in London” is a mixed-media production situated at the intersection of performative arts and digital scenography. Based on Daniel Defoe’s 1722 archival-style account, the work explores the structural and psychological dynamics of systemic crisis and social isolation. Directed by Kristóf Szabó, the production utilizes Defoe’s text as a conceptual framework to analyze the sociopolitical mechanisms of a pandemic—ranging from institutional denial and the enforcement of urban confinement to the eventual erosion of communal structures.
Visual and Medial Strategy: The production is characterized by a multi-layered visual dramaturgy, where Ivó Kovács’s video art functions as a spatial and temporal mediator. Rather than serving as a purely illustrative background, the digital layer operates as a generative environment that reflects the interiority of the protagonists and the oppressive atmospheric silence of a city under lockdown. The visual components analyze the tension between the historical archival source and contemporary digital aesthetics, translating the 17th-century experience of quarantine into a modern medial discourse. Kovács’s work focuses on the abstraction of architectural boundaries and the visualization of the “Planet of Viruses” concept, examining the human condition through a lens of digital depth and spatial deconstruction.
Credits:
- Artistic Direction, Set Design & Sound Dramaturgy: Kristóf Szabó
- Video Art: Ivó Kovács
- Performance: Maximilian von Mühlen, Boshi Nawa, Lili Oksanen
- Source Material: Daniel Defoe: A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
- Venue: Orangerie Theater, Cologne, Germany
- Production Year: 2026
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