COMMANDER

THEATRE PLAY by Farm in the Cave
IN-PERSON at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art

A theatre play & artistic film exploring the unsettling reality of online youth radicalisation.

5 Oct Wed 19:00 CEST

5 Oct Wed 20:30 CEST

REGISTRACE ZDE
online teen radicalisation, misinformation, extremist ideologies

The event is in Czech but English-friendly: it involves a dance theater play followed by a movie with English subtitles. The event requires festival participants to purchase a ticket.

I’ll probably kill myself before I’m thirty. Cool. Make sure to take someone down with you. In the online world, a wave of radicalization and extremism is rising among children and youth. Love is love and shit. Long live hatred! They’re just kids. Why are you letting your sister date that kike? They became victims of manipulation, instruments of other people’s aims. I’m always armed with a fixed blade at the very least… 

Immerse yourself in digital darkness that most of us are unaware of. Since we live in such a rotten world, is violence still a sin? What will it take for a twelve-year-old boy to move from such words to deeds?

In April 2020, Estonian police caught the leader of an international neo-Nazi online organization that operated under the nickname “Commander.” It turned out to be a thirteen-year-old boy. This rather shocking event set in motion the Commander project by the Farm in the Cave collective. The extensive project includes a theatrical performance, an artistic film with child actors, an exhibition installation, educational videos and workshops. Through these different means, the project aims to understand the unsettling mystery that lies beneath the surface of online realities, drawing attention to the hidden and often overlooked dangers faced by children and young people.

During adolescence, we form our identity, values, social relationships and sense of belonging. We study the world and its rules. The generation of today’s teenagers has had the internet in their lives basically since the day they were born, and so their process of (self-)discovery takes place not only in the real world but also in the virtual one. The internet uses various tools to win our attention. It has become fertile soil for the growth of misinformation, extremist ideologies and hatred. Due to anonymity and often relatively effortless identity theft, it is also an ideal environment for manipulation. The combination of these factors makes the online world a perfect “recruitment tool” for extremist groups. A wave of teen radicalisation is therefore rising across the virtual space on discussion forums, social networks, and video games. Hidden from the public eye.

Farm in the Cave

Farma v jeskyni je mezinárodní divadelní studio tvořící v Praze, zaměřené na tvorbu, vývoj a výzkum lidského výrazu. Za dvacetiletou existenci soubor reprezentoval Českou republiku na mnoha prestižních festivalech na 3 kontinentech a ve více než 60 městech. Farma v jeskyni je držitelem mnoha mezinárodních i českých ocenění, mezi kterými je  nejprestižnější Evropská cena Nové divadelní reality pro režiséra Viliama Dočolomanského, který se tak stal jediným českým držitelem této ceny. Další ocenění: Total Theatre Award, The Grand Prix Golden Laurel Wreath Award, A Fringe First Awards, Cena Magazínu Respekt za nejsilnější taneční představení, Cena Sazky za nejlepší pohybové představení, Hlavní Cena Veljka Maricice a další.