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Credits: Marie Daniels

Obsessions Diary

#guestwriter #musictheater #obsessions

“Dear Annika and Oblivia,

first of all I would like to just say thank you again for your wonderful work and collaboration with us in Bremen. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos or videos from our time together (we should have taken a picture with our hairstyle!) but there’s one particular moment I would like to reflect on.


I’m sure those involved will all remember the moment (I think it was during the HP) where the Boom-Chi-Chi comes back for the 3rd time and a man in the audience sighed loudly “oh nein…”. It made me chuckle a bit and, later upon reflection, I realised this is what obsessions are and what Obsessions was about. The funny but annoying frustration that continuity can bring.


I was recently at a performance of a piece in which a singer recited the same text (for what seemed like) 100 times. Each time she would start the sentences again from the beginning I felt the frustration rising in me, wanting to shout out “Please not again!”. I can imagine this is what that audience member was feeling during that third recurrence of “Boom-Chi-Chi”. 


This experience, coupled with my experience in Obsessions was a reminder for me that theater/art/music doesn’t always have to be pleasant or comfortable. When I’m feeling down, I like to remind myself that it’s good to be sometimes sad: if I was always happy, I would have no reference point, no way of knowing the difference between happy and sad! And in this same way I think we learn to appreciate the power of art- it can move us to feel a full range of emotions. And perhaps just that is why it’s so wonderful to come out of our day to day routines, continuity and obsessions to experience art!”

Warmly,
Marie