On the 18th and 19th August ATC and Company of Angels presented Ghosts of Past and Present, two evenings of rehearsed play readings by emerging Norwegian playwrights in association with the Arcola Theatre and supported by the Norwegian Embassy. The two plays were Blue sky, green forest by Bjørnar L. Teigen and Buy Nothing Day by Kim Atle Hansen.

The readings were directed by myself. The wonderful cast consisted of Lloyd Gorman, Amrita Acharya, Eloise Secker, Laura Prior, Hannah Pierce and Alex Packer. Lloyd Gorman also composed excellent melodies for the songs performed in Buy Nothing Day. Philip Thorne and I translated the plays, working from existing literal translations by Svein Solenes (Blue sky, green forest) and Kim Atle Hansen (Buy Nothing Day).

We were delighted that Bjornar L.Teigen, the writer of Blue sky, green forest, was able to come from Norway to see the readings. He seemed pleased with how we’d dealt with translating his play and putting it on stage, so I’m very happy about that!

The Norwegian readings were part of ATC’s Spin Off program and took place at the Arcola Theatre before the performance of ATC/Arcola Theatre’s production of Ghosts or Those Who Return by Henrik Ibsen, presented in a new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The ATC production was directed by Bijan Sheibani.

For more information see www.atctheatre.com or www.companyofangels.co.uk, or http://www.atctheatre.com/index.php?plid=78&show=info

- Oystein

Company of Angels presents Sense at Southwark Playhouse

From 28th April to the 2nd May

This is not an Imploding Fictions production, but is produced by our good friends and collegues at Company of Angels. Oystein is directing “Nose”, one of the 5 pieces:

Following on from the play’s success at Theatre Café Festival 2008, five Company of Angels’ Associates will jointly be directing a promenade production of the award-winning Sense by German author Anja Hilling with a cast of 10 final year Drama Centre students.

Sense is a series of interlinking narratives. All five ‘senses’ are also plays in their own right. A play about teenagers, love, and the need to make radical choices, Sense is an intense, poetic journey into touching, inhaling, tasting, hearing, seeing and experiencing life to the extreme.

“astonishingly grown-up and hard-hitting theatre for young people”
Lyn Gardner – The Guardian, on Theatre Cafe 2008

Tickets can be booked from:
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
or 020 7407 0234

Or read more on:
www.companyofangels.co.uk

Hope to see you all there!

- Oystein

Our production of Norway.Today is on in London at Sothwark Playhouse on the 14th and 15th of November as part of Company of Angels’ Theatre Café Festival!

We recommend you book tickets now, because Southwark Playhouse operate with airline style ticketing, which means they are cheaper the earlier you book.

Box office: 020 7928 2811

We hope to see you there!

Øystein and Philip

On Friday the 22nd February we finally presented our two showcase performances of Norway.Today. We pitched our ideas to Company of Angels last June, and have been working actively on the production since last September, so it was a relief to finally seeing it all come to fruition. This long awaited culmination only marks the end of phase one though, now we are on to phase two which includes planning further development and contacting potential venues and festivals.

Being given the theatre at the Junction not only to perform in, but also to rehearse in for the entire two weeks we were there was a rare luxury, but also absolutely necessary: Our concept relies heavily on the use of video projection and live feed, and we were able to install and work with these features from day one. We received very positive feedback on how the video projection was incorporated into the show, something we would never have achieved had we not had the chance to rehearse with it through the whole process.

There are some people we would like to thank for their dedication to this project, without whom it would not have come together:

John, Theresa and Vanessa at Company of Angels for giving us this great opportunity.

Richard and Lucia at the Junction for their generosity, giving us the chance to work in the Junction theatre space for two weeks.

The Junction staff for their help with this and that whenever we needed it.

Tamas Kirali, our lighting designer who came in right at the very end and lit the show beautifully.

Yui Okado who volunteered to help us out with stage management in the last stages of the process.

Rob Colin Thomas, photographer, for coming up to Cambridge to take photographs of the show.

Our two audiences who gave us positive, critical and constructive feedback.

And last but not least:

Laurence Short, our video and sound designer – this would have been a completely different show without you, we have benefitted greatly from your technical know-how and never-ending ingenuity! We hope this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship!

And of course the actors, Neil Connolly and Hannah Boyde – you are our August and Julie, and we look forward to continue the Norway.Today adventure with you!

Where do we go next? We don’t know yet. But one thing is certain: There will be more performances of Norway.Today. It is only a question of where and when…

- Øystein

Imploding Fictions’ production of Norway.Today by Igor Bauersima (translated by Dr. Marlene Norst) was developed with support from Company of Angels and The Junction as part of the Young Angels Theatremakers Award Programme 07/08.

Images: Rob Thomas © 2008 http://www.robthomasphotography.com

Tickets for Norway.Today can now be booked at the Junction Box Office 01223511511, web: http://www.junction.co.uk . It would be great to see you there! 

Best, Philip Thorne and Øystein Brager – Artistic Directors of Imploding Fictions     

Why is it that we can’t seem to do a show without some piece of elaborate expenditure? In Hamletmachine we set our hearts on having a huge hour glass which had to be especially blown for the occasion. For our current production Norway.Today, we have decided that part of the video-scenography is to be filmed on location at the fjords. There is one section we are especially keen on creating – the bit were the stage direction states: Julie falls off a cliff and dangles over the abyss. Having to organise all this from Sidcup with a shoestring budget, doing all this ourselves was (unfortunately) not an option – so we sought out some random message boards and dropped a hopeful add aimed at Norwegian cliff-divers into the digital ocean… And lo and behold, we got a prompt answer from a bloke who reckoned ‘what you want is a helicopter job’ and offering his services in this field. Since helicopter jobs are still way out of our financial paradigm at this humble stage in our careers, we requested whether a ‘handheld, camcorder-type job’ wouldn’t be equally feasible. To which the (quite reasonable) response was ‘yes – but the falling of the cliff bit might be a bit difficult.’ (We’ve had an actor cycling into a tree and off a peer before – but that’s different. That was Sammy Metcalfe. He will do anything.) Anyway, our man on location is now off on a tentative cliff balancing expedition, and we’ll see what kind of footage we get – we’re excited!

Our exploration of Igor Bauersima’s Norway.Today has been made possible by the Young Angels Theatremakers Awards, initiated by Company of Angels and The Junction in Cambridge.

- Philip