In 1991 Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested and accused of murder. In his apartment the police found decomposing meat and dozens of polaroids Dahmer had taken of his victims while they were tied up and butchered. In his freezer they found body parts, neatly packed in plastic bags.
In «The Dahmer Syndrome» director Øystein Johansen dissects the mechanisms of cruelty and explores the relationship between sexuality and perversion, and between observation and voyeurism. On stage we witness five men, trapped in a glass box. They are stored away like leaves in a book, pinned down like butterflies in a cabinet. Trough this diorama we witness Dahmer’s universe unfold.
After the price-winning performance «A thing of beauty», «The Dahmer Syndrome» is the second performance in which director Øystein Johansen takes the perverted logic of Jeffrey Dahmer and other “lone wolfs” as a prism to research obsession and isolation, and explore how both amplify each other.