Overview
If you came across a stack of diaries belonging to a convicted mass murderer, right-wing extremist and terrorist, would you read them? What about a 1500 page manifesto comprising bomb manuals, philosophical reflections, racism, propaganda and self-interviews?
On July 22, 2011, a young Norwegian man organised and carried out a double terrorist attack, setting off a bomb in Oslo, Norway; two hours later he began shooting down as many politically active young people as possible, killing 77 and wounding more than 200.
The manifesto was released prior to his attack and acts as the ‘inspiration’ and story behind Christian Lollike, Olaf Højgaard and Tanja Diers’ production Manifesto 2083. The production is being held at the Basement Theatre from September 29 to October 3, 2015, and is both somber and questionably impressive.
If you aren’t already slightly interested, if not repelled by the idea of attempting to understand the fascinating mind of this young man, you will be interested to learn that when Anders Breivik was convicted he was declared perfectly sane. Mad yes, but reasonable and rational. A waste of a billion years of evolution maybe. Extreme, definitely, but sane nonetheless.
The voices inside this young man's head may not have been true but they certainly had some powerful ideas that cause Manifesto 2083 to be a provocative and compelling watch.