Internet the Musical: A wildly eclectic, interactive, dramatic and very fun musical theatre piece that is continuously in development. Open source theatre.
It started with an open call: Who wants to join us online to create a new musical theatre piece together? During the start of the pandemic in 2020, about 50 artists from a dozen different countries, who suddenly found themselves living in isolation, responded to our call and got together online to create a musical about the internet. The result? A large and diverse team of artists and designers located on several continents, who (guided by artistic team Flavia Faas and Céline Talens of Questions Collective) created an entire theatre script, including music, dance, and costume designs.
We have been working together in ways that blur the lines of ownership. The aim of this project is to collaborate to create a story about connection in times of isolation.
In 2021 we performed Internet the Musical -live and offline- at the O festival, in collaboration with Worm.
In 2022 we started expanding the world of ITM via workshops: In teams we further developed the pieces, scenes, designs, songs etc.
Now: More contributions, more interaction and another, bigger live show! Yes, please.
You are now visiting the ITM website where you can
Note: The entire musical (including everything you add to it) is made and published under the creative commons licence “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike”. Credits from all creative contributions are published on the page “Credits”.
Internet the Musical can not be described as your standard musical, but because “musical” is a format in which many different disciplines and styles can come together and enhance each other, we chose to connect with this genre.
Our musical tells a story that tries to capture ‘the internet’ as a whole and in all its absurdity. Seen from the perspective of a person who is looking to distinguish between ‘online’ and ‘offline’. This idea is being challenged with interactive online elements that can become visible on stage.
The main character of the story ‘The Human’ longs for real contact, true connection, and they go online to seek it. As a sort of Alice in Wonderland, the Human falls from one website into the next and meets the inhabitants of the internet. Figures like the Algorhythm (who has a great sense of rhythm), the Reviewer (who is stuck on Ebay Beach) and The Server are part of this adventurous story.
The promise of realness, true connection and freedom lingers constantly in the air, but the question remains: will this promise be fulfilled?