Introduction
Usually, adults sing lullabies to children. In his immersive and poetic musical performance Nation of Sleep, Ari Benjamin Meyers reverses this situation: part of the audience is invited to lie down and have an individual experience. Children from Graz soothe spectators in one-on-one encounters, encouraging them to relax and sleep in a world they could not prevent from falling apart. As it appears, the youngest generation might have to make sacrifices the preceding generations should have made for a brighter future.
The performance explores the metaphoric potential of sleep in uncertain, sleepless times and facilitates an atmospheric encounter between generations revolving around dreams, nightmares, fears of the future, and feelings of helplessness. Featuring a newly commissioned monologue by Tom McCarthy, Nation of Sleep invites the audience to collectively contemplate the challenges of our times and opens up a space for a symbolic wake-up call.