"It’s less of an actual play per se and more of an artfully presented, frank account of an act of performance art: these five guys taking their pay checks for the production (standard monthly pay for artists in Iceland, times five) and attempting to hide it from the tax man using the sorts of schemes used by shady millionaires. The outcome is satirical, educational and often just plain hilarious...
A really bad idea for a theatre piece? I was proven wrong!"
- Silja Aðalsteinsdóttir for TMM
Skattsvik Development Group
Premiere at Reykjavik City Theatre in March 2020
By Ást & Karókí theatre group
Independent performance art group Ást og karókí (Love and Karaoke) has for the past weeks worked within the walls of the City Theatre under the pretense that its members will author a new Icelandic play about toxic masculinity. An extensive data leak, however, shows that the group has instead made considerable sums of money through tax evasion. Millions of Icelandic Króna paid by the City Theatre end up in a secret bank account in Santa Lucia by way of double taxation agreements, offshore companies, a consultancy firm in Panama and Dublin based company Skattsvik Development Group.
Ást og karókí (Love and Karaoke) is a Reykjavik based theatre and performance group exploring masculinity through devised theatre practices. Its members are Adolf Smári Unnarsson, Birnir Jón Sigurðsson, Friðrik Margrétar Guðmundsson, Matthías Tryggvi Haraldsson, and Stefán Ingvar Vigfússon.
Photos by Gunnlöð Jóna Rúnarsdóttir