Dark Noon

Seven South African actors explore a time when thirty-five million hungry and poor Europeans fled west across the Atlantic in search of a better life. It becomes a race for land, for gold, for wealth, and settling for a home.

The performance plays out in the framework of a filmset, and a village is slowly built throughout the 100 minutes – with a saloon, gold mine, railway, brothel, prison, church – populated with cowboys and Indians, gold diggers and missionaries and loads of deadly gunfights in an increasingly violent culture.

History is told by the victors; this story is told by the vanquished. Dark Noon is an explosive theatrical experience which demands to know; ‘who has the power to write our history?’

In the performance, the relationship between the Global South and the Global North is turned upside down. At the same time, it sheds new light on Europe’s colonial history, the myth of the Wild West, and the American Dream in an extremely powerful, inventive, and entertaining way.

The performance is brought to Finland with the support of Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and The Finnish-Danish Cultural Foundation.