... and finally, what for me was the highlight of the screen festival: Kate Pendry and Ibrahim Fazlic, live from the Vega stage in Oslo. And I wonder if the reason it worked so well was that here the performing artists got to do what they do best: performing on stage. The fact that the production was also broadcast live leads to much of the same risk that exists in a theatre performance: There is a lot at stake.
J ohnny Johnson is a recurring character Kate Pendry has used in performances over several years. The figure is a man from the working class, who runs a strong and sharp commentary on almost everything he is surrounded by, and who has now also become middle-aged. Boi is a new figure form Ibrahim Fazlic, based on the performance Prty Lyf from 2018. Boi is an outrageous, burlesque figure from society's semi-dark margins. The meeting between these two characters resulted in an explosion of generational differences, differences in taste, differences in concepts, differences in experience, in mutual conflict and understanding.
I would say that the performance is based on the monologues the two perform, mixed with dialogues and reflections on the monologues. And of course, some popular music and dance steps. Boi comes with rather dark reflections on Covid, gender, sexuality, on his desire to develop as a human being, from Boi to Man; Johnny talks about experiences, memories, gender, sexuality, and his own development as a human being, from boy to man – and tries to lift the mood a little.
It is to be hoped that Johnny Johnson and Boi will find each other again on a later occasion, for this juxtaposition I think has great potential. I want more!
By Kate Pendry and Ibrahim Fazlic.
