Please Hold
Megaland Theatre (DK)
Premiering at Selected Works Festival 2025.
Please Hold is an exploration of the aesthetics of the formal and its intimate relation to the private through choreography. The work challenges the false dichotomy between the public and the private, as formal interactions often are tied to intense emotions and taboos. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Trial, the performance demonstrates how the formal aesthetics of authority—through clothing, room design, or the graphic layout of a letter—can be so intimidating that its mere signal value is enough to induce compliance. The bodies on stage shift between being perceived as human, “citizen,” figure, object, subject, as well as between being seen as authority or subordinate.
ABOUT MEGALAND THEATRE
MEGALAND is a newly started theatre production company with Karoline Clasen Holland as the artistic director. Megaland will produce original performing arts work for the theatre stage. Please Hold is the first production by the company. It was initiated at a residency at HAUT with a public in-process work sharing at Teaterøen in Copenhagen in nov. 2023.
CREDITS
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER & PERFORMER: Karoline Clasen Holland (DK)
PERFORMERS / CO-CREATORS: Denise Lim (SG/DE), Armin Hokmi (IR/DE)
MUSICIAN, SOUND DESIGNER & CO-CREATOR: Jakob Einar la Cour (zack christ) (DK)
LiIGHTING DESIGNER & SCENOGRAPHER: Felipe Osorio Guzmán (CO/DK)
CHOREOGRAPHIC CONSULTANT: Laurent Chetouane (FR/DE)
PHOTO: Louise Herrce Serup
Initial artistic research co-produced by: HAUT Scene, Teaterøen, and MEGALAND.
Supported by: Wilhelm Hansen Foundation.