Imploding Fictions' Blog » Oslo Internasjonale Teater

From Toy Story to Communism

Øystein — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:47:53 +0000

– Wallace Shawn and The Fever

Wallace Shawn (Photo: Unknown)

Acting in Hollywood blockbusters for kids and overt Marxist politics don’t generally go hand in hand. So it’s probably fair to say that amongst contemporary playwrights Wallace Shawn wins the award for quirkiest CV. He’s a comedian, writer, political activist, translator of Brecht, essayist and social commentator with degrees in history and economics from Oxford and Harvard. Amongst the many facets of his artistic career however, personally he sees himself first and foremost as a playwright. It’s a lovely paradox that while his theatre work is often dark and confrontational and has caused outrage, he is loved by millions as the voice of Rex in Toy Story.

Wallace Shawn (Photo: Unknown)

Despite one critic describing him as ‘one of the worst and unsightliest actors in this city’ his appearance in The Princess Bride turned him into a cult figure and ever since he’s been plying his trade as the Hollywood oddball. On the other end of the spectrum he’s also appeared in the semi-autobiographical dialogue My Dinner with Andre, and a deconstruction of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya titled Vanya on 42nd Street, both directed by the legendary Louis Malle. Shawn’s theatre work began in 1978 with the play Marie and Bruce and he polarised critics and audiences from the start. His play A Thought in Three Parts caused a minor uproar in London in 1977 when the production was investigated by a vice squad and attacked in Parliament due to allegedly pornographic content. Shawn was back in London last year, this time treating viewers of his new play Grasses of a thousand colours to graphic descriptions of sex with cats. This time no legal action was taken! His language is both lyrical and violent and his themes often overtly political. Shawn is a master of drawing parallels between the psychology of his characters and the behaviour of governments and social classes and this culminated in his work The Fever.

Wallace Shawn (Photo: Unknown)

The Fever follows a nameless character’s journey as he awakens on a bathroom floor in a nameless poverty-stricken country. Sick and alone, this everyman recounts the story of how he has arrived at this particular hotel, and the painful realisations that has accompanied his journey. It’s a journey that brings him face to face

with the grotesque inequalities at the heart of modern existence. Shawn asks us to look at the choices we make, on a daily level, to see how we are each continuing the flow of keeping the poor in the poverty zone and the rich in the insulated levels of power. His wealth, he realises, depends on others’ poverty, his comfort on

others’ deprivation. He comes to see that his life is ‘irredeemably corrupt’. Shawn then continues to depict the torturous reasoning of a mind trying to find its way back to acceptance of a state of affairs it has discovered to be morally untenable. He eventually shifts from spasms of disgust for his part in the world’s injustices to

coolly logical arguments for maintaining the status quo. Wallace Shawn deconstructs the contradictions and compromises of the urban liberal mind with wit and rigour. The play asks us if we should feel guilty once we realise that our hard work does not justify our comfort, when in reality all work hard but not all are comfortable? And what steps should we take when that realisation is made?

Wallace Shawn (Photo: Unknown)

The Fever has been described by Shawn as his ‘most autobiographical work’. He has been working on it constantly for many years and the work and its form have undergone many permutations. Shawn originally intended it as a piece of political activism rather than ‘a play’. In the 80s he performed it himself at dinner parties in peoples living rooms all around New York. He says he would ideally perform it after his audience had tucked into a nice meal and still had a glass of champagne in their hands. He would proceed to tease away at the things that underpin the lifestyles

of middle-class liberals. The central conflict would unfold directly between the play and the audience. In 1990 The Fever became a stage play and was performed in both New York and at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Most recently, in 2004, Shawn turned The Fever into a tv show for HBO starring Vannessa Redgrave and Michael Moore. The Fever remains a powerful and probing assault on the distribution of wealth in our society and our privileged existence. OIT are proud to be presenting the play for the first time in Oslo.

The Fever by Wallace Shawn (US)

a rehearsed reading by Oslo International Theatre

at Vardeteatret in Oslo, Radhusgt. 19

22nd April at 7pm

Directed by Øystein Ulsberg Brager

Performed by Torgny G. Aanderaa

Production management: Teatersirkus / Michael H. Sciarrone

The reading will be performed in english.

Tickets: 70,- NOK

To reserve tickets email oslointernasjonaleteater@gmail.com

For more information on OIT see:

http://oslointernasjonaleteater.wordpress.com

Oslo International Theater is a project run by Imploding Fictions.

The Fever was first performed by the author January 1990 in an apartment near Seventh Avenue in New York City.

Performed with kind permission by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.

Imploding Fictions attempts Crimp in Oslo

Øystein — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:44:05 +0000

Oslo International Theatre presents the Norwegian premiere of

Attempts on Her Life

by Martin Crimp

a rehearsed reading at Vardeteatret in Oslo

Translated by: Katharina Gellein Viken

Directed by: Øystein Ulsberg Brager

With: Katharina Gellein Viken, Christoffer Hag Maure, Robert Rustad Amundsen og Torgny G. Aanderaa

Produced by: Michael H. Sciarrone

Thursday 11th March at 7pm at Vardeteatret, Rådhusgt. 19 in Oslo, Norway

Tickets can be reservered via oslointernasjonaleteater@gmail.com

Attempts on Her Life is a modern masterpiece by British dramatist Martin Crimp.

When it burst onto stage in 1997 at London’s Royal Court theatre it created both immense excitement and considerable bafflement. It’s the work of a freewheeling imagination in which seventeen scenarios collide to create the portrait of a highly ambiguous character called ‘Anne’. With each scenario we are presented with a different facet of her enigma. Is she a porn star, an international terrorist, a victim of aliens, a physicist or indeed a make of car? Martin Crimp presents us with all these options in this virtuosic tour de force of a play which is by turns funny, shocking, entertaining and sad. More than a decade after its’ premiere Attempts on Her Life has become an established modern classic and a major influence on young writers the world over. OIT is proud to present the first reading of this extraordinary piece in Norway in a brand new translation by Katharina Gellein Viken.

Welcome to Attempts on Her Life!

Philip Thorne

Joint artistic director of Imploding Fictions and dramaturg for Oslo International Teater

About Crimp and Attempts on Her Life:

The most radically interrogative play in western mainstream theatre since Beckett.

Mary Luckhurst

The piece has a kaleidoscopic vigour … It is driven by a radical contempt for the new global capitalism and its attempt to turn us all into peripatetic, depersonalised consumers … He may have dispensed with plot and characters, but he has proved that the act of theatre can still survive if it is propelled by moral fervour.

Michael Billington, Guardian

This is what the brave new theatre of the 21st Century will look like – both on stage and on the page.

Nicholas de Jongh

[Crimp] has an extraordinary fastidiousness about language … He displays the formal bravura of one who delights in his craft.

Independent on Sunday (om Crimps The Country)

Martin Crimp is one of the hottest properties in Europe.

Guardian

For more information on OIT see:

http://oslointernasjonaleteater.wordpress.com

Oslo International Theatre is a project run by Imploding Fictions:

www.implodingfictions.com

Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp was first presented by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre.

Publisher: Nordiska ApS

Photo from OITs reading of Seven Other Children by Richard Stirling. From the left: Sveinung Oppegaard and Torgny G. Aanderaa. Copyright: Michael H. Sciarrone

- Oystein

INVITASJON and INVITATION

Øystein — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:29:32 +0000

Hannah, Sammy and the two Hamletmachine robots, photo: Tamás Kiraly

We come straight from another two successful Hamletmachine performances at the lovely Théâtre la Vignette in Montpellier, to a completely new departure in Oslo: We are starting Oslo International Theatre (OIT), our first big project in Norway. Below you find an invitation (both in Norwegian and English) to our very first rehearsed reading. We hope to see you there!

INVITASJON

Oslo Internasjonale Teater inviterer til iscenesatt lesning av

Sju Jødiske Barn av Caryl Churchill og Sju Andre Barn av Richard Stirling

med påfølgende paneldebatt

Tid: 12. november klokken 19:00

Sted: Vardeteatret, Rådhusgata 19, Oslo

Pris: Fri entré, innsamling til inntekt for Medical Aid for Palestinians og One Voice Movement

Medvirkende: Terje Skonseng Naudeer, Thea Borring Lande, Sveinung Oppegaard, Torgny Aanderaa, Ingrid Askvik og Tor Itai Keilen

Regi: Øystein Ulsberg Brager

OIT presenterer Sju Jødiske Barn av Caryl Churchill og Sju Andre Barn av Richard Stirling med påfølgende paneldebatt, og stiller spørsmålet: Hvilken rolle kan dramatikken spille i forhold til konfliktsituasjoner verden over? Deltagere i panelet er blant annet Gunnar Germundson fra Dramatikerforbundet og litteraturviter Rana Issa. Dramaturg Njål Mjøs leder debatten. Det er fri entré, og OIT vil etter dramatikernes ønske samle inn penger som deles likt mellom Medical Aid for Palestine og One Voice Movement.

Det er begrenset med publikumskapasitet, så hvis du ønsker å sikre plass er det mulig å sende epost med navn og antall publikumere til: oslointernasjonaleteater@gmail.com

Vi vil etterhvert opprette en egen mailingliste for OIT som kun omhandler våre arrangementer i Norge. Om du ønsker å stå på denne er det hyggelig om du sender en email med «Påmelding OIT nyhetsbrev» i emnefeltet til: oslointernasjonaleteater@gmail.com

Mer info finnes på http://oslointernasjonaleteater.wordpress.com

Vi håper du kan komme torsdag 12. november!

Hamletmachine in Montpellier, photo: Tamás Kiraly

INVITATION

Oslo International Theatre invites you to a rehearsed reading of

Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill and Seven Other Children by Richard Stirling with a following panel debate

When: 12th November at 7pm

Where: Vardeteatret, Rådhusgata 19, Oslo, Norway

Entry: Free, a collection is made for Medical Aid for Palestinians and One Voice Movement

Cast: Terje Skonseng Naudeer, Thea Borring Lande, Sveinung Oppegaard, Torgny Aanderaa, Ingrid Askvik and Tor Itai Keilen

Directed by: Oystein Ulsberg Brager

The reading will take place in Norwegian.

OIT presents Seven Jewish Children Caryl Churchill and Seven Other Children by Richard Stirling with a following panel debate. We ask the question: What role can the theatre play in relation to areas of conflict around the world? Amongst others the leader of the Norwegian Playwrights’ Organisation, Gunnar Germundson, and fellow of the University of Marburg, Rana Issa, will participate in the debate, which will be moderated by dramaturg Njål Mjøs. Entry is free, and a collection will be made benefitting Medical Aid for Palestinians and One Voice Movement equally.

Audience numbers are limited, so if you wish to reserve a seat please send us an email with your name and the number of people to oslointernasjonaleteater@gmail.com.

For more info see http://oslointernasjonaleteater.wordpress.com

Welcome!

- Oystein