Journey to the largest landfill on earth
Jan-Christoph Gockel and Ensemble
In December 2016, a yoghurt pot is found on the beach. It dates back to 1976 and looks almost new. This incident mirrors one of the greatest environmental dramas of the 20th century. Plastic just won't decompose. Five giant whirlpools of microplastics and plastic waste have formed in the world's oceans in recent decades, the largest of which, between California and Japan, now exceeds the area of India.
To speak are garbage workers, sailors, environmentalists, plastic moguls as well as lonely idealists who are not deterred by the size of the "seventh continent" and have declared war on the maritime dump. But the mythical level of plastics is also the focus of this performance. After all, the history of the 20th century has hardly been so demonically conflated with any other material as with plastic. It once stood for a better future - now it reminds people of the hubris of their desires as a floating guilty conscience made of garbage.
Text source and further information about this play: http://www.staatstheater-mainz.com/web/veranstaltungen/schauspiel-17-18/siebterkontinent
