Mystery Magnet

Out of the darkness of the stage, a procession of images step into the light, setting performers and objects in motion.
Seemingly unconnected figures, sculptures, tableaux vivants claim their ground like theatrical creatures.
Mystery Magnet sketches out a haunted world where humour is born from sadness and magic from the prosaic.

A universe inspired by comics and pictorial action, with the aim of developing an endless battle of materials, shapes and colours.
The result is a succession of scenes that are woven without any apparent logic, seeking to surprise the observer and to bring them, along with the actors, to the very limits of the imaginable.

Mystery Magnet is an absurd and magical show in continual transformation, where nothing is what it seems.
It portrays contemporary surrealism, an experimental terrain where outlandish tenderness, desensitised cruelty, brilliant promises and an unstoppable destruction all share the same space. The observer steps inside Warlop’s mind, and what do they see? Hairy beings, a choir of mannequins, gravitational darts, balloons, horse-women, people rushing off and an inflatable shark. Figures with no apparent connection and sculptures that reclaim their place as theatrical creatures.

With Mystery Magnet, Miet Warlop was selected for the Stuckemarkt Prize, part of the renowned German theaterfestival Theatertreffen (Berliner Festspiele, Berlin), where today’s young playwrights are put in the spotlight. Warlop was selected by the British theater director and Stuckemarkt juror Katie Mitchell. In the jury report, she praises Warlop’s grip on theatricality, humor and her unique visual signature.

 
Press

“Rather than telling a story, Warlop instead creates a world of beautiful chaos (not unlike what an artist’s exploded mind may look like) in which things happen without rhyme or reason. It induces all sorts of complex emotions, from disgust to euphoria, while inviting the audience to be the judge of the characters’ actions – they are violent or playful, lonely or mischievous, brilliant or idiotic.” ****
Time Out Singapore – 1 September 2014

 
Time Out Singapore – 1 September 2014
TagesWoche – 29 August 2014
El Pais – 3 February 2018