The Baltic cod and eel has had enough, they’re mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore in a “science theatre” piece premiered among thousands of politicians, lobbyists and media pundits at the 2009 Almedalen week on the island of Gotland.
Taken hostage through deep sea trawling, the audience is brought down into the deep, where disgruntled fish – how would you feel to be trawled and then maybe thrown overboard as discard? – have arranged a trial of Man, where experts give evidence on film, some times supportive, sometimes not so supportive, including a well-known Marine Ecology Professor, the President of the Fishermen’s Federation and Sweden’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Helge Skoog, who has been a prominent actor in Sweden for decades, was also one of a couple that introduced the concept of “Science theatre” in Stockholm in the 1970s, where complex scientific knowledge and theory is investigated and explained on stage in an entertaining way. Johan Paulsen, a freelance actor, is his partner in “Torsk i soppan” (Cod in the Soup), the title also a rather untranslatable play with words.
The play will also be performed at the Stockholm City Theatre later in the fall.