Follow the line of least resistance

(ORIGINAL TITLE: Po linii najmniejszego oporu)

Imagine that one sunny day in your city, traffic stops. Bus and cab drivers leave their vehicles and go for a walk. Vendors suddenly stop serving merchandise and begin an uninterrupted picnic. Bank advisors take off their jackets and start sunbathing on the rooftops of their office buildings. Everything comes to a standstill. Production and the flow of capital stop, and you can focus all your energy on the joy of living. An endless fiesta begins. The celebration of free time. The festival of doing nothing. Today it is very difficult for us to even imagine it.

The authors of the performance “Follow the Line of Least Resistance” wonder how one can oppose the contemporary exploitation of labor when its tools have become deceptively similar to artistic methods. Analyzing the specificity of an actor’s work, they explore the possibilities of pulling it out of the constraints of productivity. Can an actor/actress on stage be lazy? Can he/she do less? Laziness as a strategy of resistance to the restrictive demands of productivity in today’s world may be a chance to free oneself from the pressure of relentless activity. But does the contemporary work society know of any other activities in the name of which this freedom is worth gaining?