Not the communist party manifesto set to music: A Dollhouse diptych

[hazelk]

I think a Marxist reading of Dollhouse works best and no one plays musical Marx better than Kurt Weill. With or without that Brecht guy. Youkali Tango is intended as a doll’s eye view of the show - an interpretive dance of false consciousness. Mandalay speaks for the clients (and not so much with the dancing).

Title: Youkali Tango
Song writers: Kurt Weill & Roger Fernay
Artists: Jeff Cohen, John Mauceri, RIAS Sinfonietta Berlin & Ute Lemper
Fandom: Dollhouse
Spoilers: S1.1-12
Warning: Scenes from the show
Format: DivX
Size: 42.7 MB

Summary: The sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. The opium of the people.

Download here (Right/control click and save target as)
Stream at BAM here. Embedded below.
Lyrics with translation

Title: The Mandalay Song
Song writers: Kurt Weill & Bertold Brecht
Artists: The American Conservatory Theatre Cast
Fandom: Dollhouse
Spoilers: S1.0-13
Warnings: Sexual assault, institutional rape, violence, exploitation, abuse and bloody revolution
Format: DivX
Size: 34.8 MB

Summary: The universal prostitution of the worker

Download here (Right/control click and save target as)
Stream at BAM here. Embedded below.
Lyrics

Comments

[promethia_tenk]

I just recently finished watching Dollhouse, found it fascinating (if flawed), and have been scooping up all the vids I can find. Of everything I've seen, these two are by far my favorite, both separately and in juxtaposition. And as as much as a love the dark, dark biting humor of 'Mandalay,' it's 'Youkali' that has me mesmerized--I think that really must be something like the subjective experience of a doll, which is something I find myself continually trying to imagine when I think of this show.

[hazelk]

Thank you! That what is it like to be a doll feels like the heart of why the show was made but almost impossible to express in TV form. It really should have been a novel. Maybe a short story. Something like James Tiptree Jnr's "The Girl Who Was Plugged In"but different.