Cold Sweat

Cold Sweat is a series of theatrical duet and solo pieces performed by members of Forced Entertainment based on texts and sound design by Tim Etchells.

In response to the omnipresence of artificial intelligence, the renowned collective continues what it began in its previous piece, Signal to Noise. The performers lip-sync texts pre-recorded by computer-generated voices. The bodies are tormented by these non-human voices, giving rise to a series of burlesque situations reminiscent of Beckett's work, where the heroes are deprived of action and mobility. Here, there are no heroes, only a sonic and choreographic score with a tenuous rhythm and biting irony. Between sincere revelation and cliché, Forced Entertainment's interpretation ultimately exposes a crisis of representation. “Everything is a joke, but nothing is funny. Or everything is funny and nothing is funny,” as Tim Etchells puts it.