—

What is Oslo International Theatre? How did it begin?

Oslo International Theatre (OIT), is a project run by Imploding Fictions. Oslo International Theatre presents contemporary international drama which has not been performed in Norway before, at a venue in Oslo. With a few exceptions (‘Flap and Fear’ by Darren Lerigo being one of them), we get all the plays translated into Norwegian, and perform them as rehearsed readings. Oslo International Theatre began in November 2009 with a reading of Caryl Churchill’s provocative play ‘Seven Jewish Children’, and has quickly grown to become Imploding Fictions biggest undertaking. The idea appeared out of a wish to start a longer, sustained project, a desire to do something that might have a lasting impact, and the want to do finally do something in Oslo.

Who runs Oslo International Theatre?

Imploding Fictions runs OIT. The artistic leadership is held by Øystein Ulsberg Brager and Philip Thorne, and all sorts of practical and organisational things are taken care of by our eminent collaborator & stage manager Michael H. Sciarrone.

How do you choose plays? What are you looking for in the work?

OIT work only with contemporary plays (the oldest play we have done was written in 1990), and we choose plays that take place in contemporary society, that comment on contemporary society, and often plays which are critical of something in contemporary society, be it politics, economics, culture, trends, peoples behaviour or attitudes, you name it. Plays for now. Plays for people who live today. Plays about the experience of today.

In order to find these plays, we read, read, read and read some more. At least 90% of the plays we read don’t make the shortlist. Some because they don’t fit our criteria, most because they are simply not good enough. We are looking for the gems. We only want the best.

How have the shows been received so far?

We have received very positive feedback both from audiences and the industry. After only two readings, we were invited to an informal meeting with the second largest theatre in Oslo this spring to talk about OIT and about some of the plays in our program. We were very proud to be noticed by the big fish so early in our progress! Next year we are not only doing readings of plays, we are also organizing workshops run by two noticable figures in international theatre, both of whom have expressed great excitement about being part of our program for 2011. Rehearsed readings are not done very much in Norway, so I think the audiences are gradually discovering what a rewarding and exciting format it is for those interested in contemporary drama. I think the audiences in Oslo are craving new plays, new stories, contemporary stories. And I sense an excitement related to the discovery that there is now a place to experience that on a regular basis.

What has been your favourite play to work on?

What an impossible question to answer! We only do great plays. Thats why we do them. Because they’re great. I can’t answer that, because I love them all for different reasons.

Where does Oslo International Theatre fit in the Norwegian theatrical landscape?

Norwegian theatre consists of two main camps: The theatres / big institutions and the free groups / the independent theatre companies. Imploding Fictions belongs amongst the independent companies, but Oslo International Theatre stands out as a different kind of project to what most other companies do. Most independent companies make touring shows, that tour internationally, nationally or schools, or they make a show which is on for a sustained run in a programming or hired venue. Most companies make one show at the time (only a few of them are big enough to have more than one show in their repertoir). Not very many companies run regular projects or a series of related events (the ones that do, tend to organise lab sessions or workshops). The way OIT works, programming 6 or 8 plays a year (6 in 2010, 8 in 2011), means that we stand out, operating in a way which is very idiosyncratic.

There are also no other Norwegian company devoted to contemporary, international drama, in the way that we are. There are other companies that perform contemporary international drama now and again, and the big theatres do include contamporary foreign plays in their repertoir to a certain extent, but no other company or theatre has the same long term, singular dedication to bringing plays to Norway that haven’t been performed here before, and getting plays translated and made accessible in Norwegian.

What else does Oslo International Theatre provide? Workshops? Encouragement for new writers?

OIT also organizes other events in relation to some of our readings. After the reading of ‘Seven Jewish Children’ by Caryl Churchill we organised a panel debate about political texts and the political drama in a Norwegian context. After ‘Flap and Fear’ there will be an informal conversation about being a young playwright with Darren Lerigo and the Norwegian playwright Toril Solvang. Next year we are organising workshops both for young directors and young playwrights, as well as conversations, debates and Q&As after several of our readings. We want the project to contain more than just the performances, we want OIT to be a meeting place for people interested in contemporary drama.

What dreams do you have for the project? Would you be open to bringing Norwegian plays to other countries, say, England?

My dream is that OIT will keep on running for years and years, feeding norwegian theatre with exciting texts from all over the world, building an ever stronger and growing team of theatre artists who share the same interest in contemporary drama.
I would be very excited for OIT to become involved in international exchange, contributing to bringing norwegian drama abroad as well as bringing international drama to Norway.

What has been the most important thing you’ve learnt so far?

As an artist and as a producer of theatre: That I need to be challenged to get better. I need people around me to challenge my ideas, in order for the ideas to grow into good ideas. Projects get better from having had more people (the right people, of course) think cleverly and properly about them. I am better when I get forced to be better, and I need to surround myself not with people who pander to my every whim, or who see my flaws but ignore them, or who trust unquestioningly that I probably always know what I am doing, but people, who want the same ultimate outcome that I want, and who dare to question how we are supposed to get there.

What problems have you found most difficult to overcome?

My own impatience. I want OIT to be very big, succesful and noticed by all the right people right away. But it will take time. We are getting there, and we are actually growing in quite a significant tempo. But my dreams are even quicker…

Also, on more practical and less philosophical note: Getting press. The norwegian press are notoriously bad for covering cultural events. How to get noticed by the big newspapers is a code we still haven’t cracked.

What is Oslo like for Theatre?

Good. In the last 5-10 years, better and better. Bar OIT there isn’t that much contemporary international drama on. Some, but not a lot. But the cultural scene is thriving, and the scope of what gets put on very broad. Oslo is a good place to be for culture at the moment.

Who inspires you the most?

Several people. My friend Dazzler, because he insists on living life on his own terms and not on anybody else’s. He has a freedom I admire him deeply for. My cousin Marie, who is a producer of cultural events. She has this unflinching belief that it is possible to make things happen. My great friend and collaborator Philip, because I can create with him. My friend Birgitte who is a theatre director, because she belives in me. She never seems to doubt that I will manage what I want to do. Even when I have doubts. My friend and collaborator Michael for his unashamed pride over everything we achieve. The five of them are fantastic people who I am very, very lucky to know. As an artist and as a human being.

What is the best advice you’ve ever had?

“F*ck, f*ck and f*ck!”

This was advice from a fierce and fabulous mentor. It should be read both literally and metaphorically – she was telling me to grow up. Maturity and experience. As a person, to become an artist. Crude words. But oh, so true.

What are your plans for the rest of the day?

Keep marketing the next reading with Oslo International Theatre, and perhaps work some more on some funding applications. And maybe read a play.

—————–

Find out more about Oslo International Theatre

- interview by Darren Lerigo.

TNS, organizer of Festival Premières (photo: Tamas Kiraly)

Last year, after we’d performed Hamletmachine at the ITS Festival in Amsterdam, we thought: That’s it. The show’s been going for a year and a half since its first performance at BAC, this is a worthy end.

But no!  A year later, the machine is back again (no killing the machine!) and it looks like it might keep going for some time still. On 5th and 6th of June we performed at the lovely Festival Premières in Strasbourg, France. The festival was organised by Le-Maillon Theatre de Strasbourg and Theatre National Strasbourg, and the beautiful Theatre Jeune Publique hosted our show. With incredibly helpful theatre and festival staff, it was a joy to revive the show.

Theatre Jeune Publique, our riverside venue!

The festival hosted 10 shows by young directors from all over Europe. A show which made a particularly strong impression on us was Sanja Mitrovic’s Will You Ever Be Happy Again, a “docu-tale” comparing the experiences of a young Serbian, with German experiences of WW2. This was done with humour, insight and lots of energy. If you get a chance to see it, do! (It’s currently touring Europe…)

We performed Hamletmachine three times to sold out houses, participated in a platform discussion event with the other directors and were interviewed for the German/Frech TV channel ARTE. We look forward to performing in France again in the near future…

The auditorium of the TJP with some of the helpful staff

For more info on Festival s Premières see:

http://www.le-maillon.com/

- Oystein

foto: Sigrid C. Degener/ITs Festival

During Imploding Fictions’ trip to Amsterdam where we performed Hamletmachine as part of the ITs Festival, we also participated in the INSTED @ ITs program. INSTED is an international network for young theatre directors (www.insted.eu) and Pip and I have taken on the responsibility for being INSTED’s London representatives. 

The ITs or International Theatreschool Festival (www.itsfestival.nl) is a large festival presenting final work by graduating theatremakers from Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere. As a side program to ITs 08, INSTED invited 20 young international and 20 young Dutch theatremakers, and arranged a week of workshops, talks, networking and parties. I participated in what was called the Music Theatre Workshop (replacing the original opera workshop). This was not a workshop on how to direct musicals as one might think, but rather a series of laboratory sessions of theatre-making, focusing on how music could play an essential part in making theatre, enhancing or adding something new to a moment of theatre and also become central in the telling of a story on stage.

The workshop was consummately and engagingly lead by Thomas Spijkerman and Wilko Sterke, two young musicians and theatremakers (both young gentlemen with an impeccable sense of retro style – looking just as if they were extras in an Austin Powers movie), and we were six young directors participating. Over the course of the four days the workshop went on for, we explored the function music could have in a number of different ways: With pre-recorded music, with live music performed beautifully by Thomas and Wilko, with live music performed not necessarily always as beautifully by the rest of us, with musical- or cabaret-style singing characters, with music naturalistically woven into the scene (a character listening to music in the scene f.ex.), as background music/muzac, Hollywood style emotional underlining, abstracted sound-scenarios and as pure, unadulterated, loud, riotous, riveting, raucous, noise!

Highlight of the week: Øystein during the showing for the rest of the INSTED crowd on the last day, hammering madly on a bass guitar (I can’t play one for shit, but I can make lots of sound with it), being so encaptured – no, entranced – in the industrial, deafening, cacophonic, earpiercing soundblast, he doesn’t realize the scene is over ages ago and everyone is shouting for him to stop…

Hell yeah, give me some LOUDNESS!

(Dear Pinter; this might be the first and only time in history that one of your short playlets have been given the deaf-metal treatment. Though it was good, I’m pretty sure you don’t need worry about it happening again.)

Conclusion: If you ever come across Thomas Spijkerman or Wilko Sterke, don’t shy away. I guarantee there’s some musical fun to be had, some exciting experiments to be made and lots to learn! 

Next year: Give me a drumkit. Ooohhh yeah. 

foto: Sigrid C. Degener/ITs Festival  

Imploding Fictions’ Hamletmachine was performed at the ITs Festival at Theatre Frascati on the 23rd June 08. 

www.itsfestival.nl

http://www.itsfestival.nl/2008_nl/festivalinfo/juryguestaward.php

http://www.itsfestival.nl/2008_nl/festivalinfo/Recensies.php  

www.theaterfrascati.nl

www.implodingfictions.com 

INSTED @ ITs took place from 23rd – 29th June 08. 

www.insted.eu

http://www.itsfestival.nl/2008_nl/programma/instedatits.php

http://www.insted.eu/instedatits 

(That last web address says “Insted at ITs”, not “instead’a tits”. Just to clear that up.)

- Øystein

(Jack. One of our regulars. He played one of the robots in Hamletmachine. Great guy.)

WARNING: This blog entry contains an overload of clichéd verbal imagery, gross exaggeration, naff pop-cultural references, shameless self admiration and personal opinions. (It is, in other words, not that dissimilar to Cherie Blair’s recent biography.)

Looking at our busy schedule the last year, one might think Imploding Fictions’ projects appear like duped rabbits out of a magicians hat (“What’s with the bright light? How did I get here? Why do my ears hurt?”), pearls on a string (Norwegian expression. Don’t ask.), train carriages out of a tunnel, one following the other, or that they fall into place like dominos or double cherries on a slot machine (Keeeerching!!!). 

(Sammy, doing his impression of a confused rabbit.)

Although all these analogies might carry some truth (particularly the ‘Keerching’ bit),  the actual experience is more like this:

It is like looking at a door.

A large, calm, white door. Impeccably painted, nicely framed and comfortably closed. It is the kind of door that fills you with peace inside, like a door of good karma, a haven of light wood and worry-less tranquility. 

Then.

All of a sudden a massive, kick-arse axe comes hacking its way loudly through the all-too-soft wood in a single smashing blow. Splinters fly everywhere and through the jagged hole a new project rears its ugly head and grins shamelessly in our face exclaiming: 

“He-e-e-ere’s Johnny!!!”

“Keerching!”

In fact, I don’t believe the experience from the inside of the Imploding Fictions vehicle even remotely resembles the viewpoint from the outside. From the corner of the sofa, with a beer and a bowl of popcorn, the Formula 1 racing car is a feast for the eye, a glistening, gleaming beam of light through the dust of the racing track, with a low, humming drone gently caressing your ears emerging from the speakers of the TV-set. From inside the cockpit on the other hand, the scandi-anglo-germanic co-pilots experience a brain mushing, blood curling G-force, battling neck breaking acceleration (Buckle up, cowboy! Let’s ride!) and the noise is like having a 10-inch nail hammered ruthlessly through your eardrums. 

Metaphorically speaking, that is.

Metaphorically speaking, Imploding Fictions is like a Formula 1 car where the pan-european construction team with a combination of luck and utter foolishness built the engine out of the spare parts of a space rocket – but completely forgot to install brakes. 

Or, it is like the baby in Lynch’s Erasorhead (the cutest baby ever to hit the silver screen!); a demanding, devouring, desperate creature with an excess of growth hormone, a living thing which has to be fed and tended to every day, like a mean green mother from outer space and it’s bad… But like any living creature, worthy of of love and respect (This is where the blog goes soppy, look out. Get your handkerchiefs lined up), having become something we crave for, enjoy (why else would we be doing it?) and ultimately depend on. 

It is not something we can really drop or forget, it is not just an object or a concept or simply a legal entity, it is more than that. Something that can perhaps only be expressed through metaphor:

Imploding Fictions is like waking up in the morning, discovering that you have been chained to a rodeo-bull who can’t tell anger management from nuclear warfare just about to be severely stung on his crown jewels by a bee with the wrong sense of humor. 

(Example of bee with the wrong sense of humour.)

It is both our Mr. Hyde and our super hero alter ego. 
Our anagram.
That which you read between the lines.
It is our hidden treasure and the life-size map to find it.
Our fun fair mirror room reflection.
Us without the make up on.

A stack of yellow bricks next to a big, blinking neon sign saying: 

“Grab your sand and bubble-fluid, guys!
It might mix nicely into mortar!” 

You can read more about Imploding Fictions’ various projects on http://www.implodingfictions.com.

- Øystein

The distinct smell of make up, boiled sweets and cheap champagne hangs in the air. We are unpacking our BAC scratch show of bad jokes, bad acting and bad taste and turning it into a full length evening of misjudged razzle dazzle for the Frascati Theatre in Amsterdam. 

Now you see it, now you don’t is essentially the debris of a clown act, a topsy turvy magic show. The principles of showmanship are deconstructed… hence, build up and punch-line are presented in the wrong order, the magical effect pre-empts its presentation. What should be fast and snazzy and glam is rendered through slow-motion, while the actual ‘trick’ is understated to the point whereby it almost escapes attention… 

The idea for the show was spurned through a simple fascination for the processes of a repeated joke: its journey from amusement, to becoming a running gag, to becoming a crushing bore and finally through stubborn persistence finding its way back into a warped kind of humour. Now you see it, now you don’t plays with such perceptual shifts and the slippery proximity of laughter and embarrassment, tragedy and comedy, wit and stupidity. The piece also owes a lot to our admiration for Tommy Cooper, and we’ve been watching far too much Jan Svankmajer latley. 

And there will be confetti. Lots of it. There will be so much confetti that you will never want to see the bright frivolous stuff ever again.

Two clowns sit opposite the audience. It is the day after the party. After the show. Possibly after the last ever show. Shards of the old act are performed out of context and gags are riffed. An unaffected, lazy, drunken haze seems to lie over the whole thing, which somehow seems to magnify the oiled routines – their absurdity, their construction and their addictive appeal. 

Now you see it; now you don’t is a celebration of failure, a bid to give drinking games the title of art, and an attempt to salvage the world through an overabundance of confetti. 

- Philip

Together with INSTED we were invited to the Körber Studio Junge Regie 2008 in Hamburg, Germany’s annual symposium for young directors. We lived in a place just of the Reeperbahn (probably the most decadent street in Europe), but even so nightlife was eclipsed by a full on schedule that seemed devised to test even the toughest theatre junkie. 

The regular programme:  show for breakfast, four hour afternoon debate about the previous shows, supper (this was invariably soup), first play of the evening followed by an audience discussion, second play of the evening followed by an audience discussion, then a ‘party’ (which was another play, only this time you were allowed to bring in a glass of wine). 

So, this was the ‘basic programme’ around which were scheduled a series of special events, shows, talks and debates, including a lecture with postdramatic theatre gurus Hans Thies Lehmann and Heiner Goebbels.

By the end of six days we had seen nineteen shows. You can read the previous sentence again if you like.

Being invited to the Körber Studio Junge Regie in Hamburg is equivalent to being waved onto a roller-coaster escapade through the current trends of contemporary German theatre. It would be an interesting sociological experiment to force Charles Spencer through the experience. My guess is that he’d explode in a fit of indignation. 

With neat regularity Spencer accuses people like Katie Mitchell of ‘smashing up the classics’, taking ‘outrageous liberties’ and ‘not serving the intentions of the dead playwright’ (actual quotes!!!) On evidence of Körber Studio 2008 faithfully reconstructing classics is certainly not what German theatre is about. It dismantles them, reconfigures them into new constellations, probes them for contemporary relevance or exposes ideological clashes with current thinking. The productions we saw of Woyzek, Hamlet, Hedda Gabler and Elektra were not attempts at reconstructing Büchner, Shakespeare, Ibsen or Hoffmansthal but rethinking them and their themes from a 21^st century standpoint. A central figure at the core of German (and most European) theatre is the ‘dramaturge’. When the term crops up it in Britain it is usually in reference to someone who acts as a kind of script supervisor on new writing. But on the continent dramaturges work on classic plays, they research previous drafts, influences etc. and then, together with the director, determine the structure and strategy for a new production (in Britain we’d say adaptation) of it. The constant accompaniment of the dramaturge and the resulting intellectual rigour in theatrical debates was one of the first striking features of our visit to Hamburg.

The other one (really not wanting to be stereotypical, but hey) was that German tea is a fucking disgrace. You get presented with a glass (!) of warm water into which you are expected to dunk a tea bag. And when Oystein asked for tea with milk the guy behind the bar (after an initial period of confusion) held it under the coffee machine and filled it up with frothy milk. 

A rather novel aspect of the festival was that it was accompanied by students of criticism (in Germany you study to become a critic) as well as the students of directing, dramaturgy and acting. The critics joined the directors’ internal discussions and debates on the shows we had seen and then read out and discussed their reviews with the artistic teams under discussion present. This meant that the practitioners had an opportunity to give direct feedback to the critics and vice versa. It was a great idea to bring these two stereotypically polarised fronts together and engage in mutual debate.

Christa Müller, a dramaturge at the Thalia showed us around the Thalia Theater which made us green with envy: two rehearsal stages which are exact replicas of the main stage (minus the auditorium) a firmly employed ensemble of actors on a regular salary and a current repertoire of fifty three (!!!) plays! 

Our stay in Hamburg was really inspiring and we met some great people – we thank the Thalia Theater, the Körber Stiftung and INSTED for inviting us, and we hope to return to Germany again soon (maybe next time with a production…) Next week we’ll be back in London.

Read more on: 

http://www.insted.eu 

http://www.thalia-theater.de

http://www.koerber-stiftung.de/foerderung/foerderung_junger_kuenstler/studio_junge_regie/index.html

http://www.implodingfictions.com 

or see some more photos from our trip on 

http://www.facbook.com/photo.php?pid=481820&l=eee5e&id=603357604

- 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

Oystein is in the midst of preparing two shows; Beauty in Stone at Camden People’s Theatre with the new integrated performance company Preface Morn (http://www.perform.tv/thescenepool/beautyinstone.html) and his solo performance Imitating Eloquence which will be performed in Kristiansand, Norway on 1st February. 

Pip is currently in rehearsal for Peter Handke’s silent piece The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other at the National Theatre (opens 6^th Feb).

On the Imploding Fictions front we have our new show Norway.Today coming up on the 22^nd January at the Junction in Cambridge (book tickets under  http:/www.junction.co.uk).

But the biggest Imploding Fictions news is that Hamletmachine was awarded the Premio Internazionale Claudio Gora at its guest performance in Rome! The Jury selected the production with the following statement: 

For the ability to express through the poetry of the body, the power of imagery and strength of silences and the rigorous research conducted.

Øystein, Pip, Sergio Sivori and Cristina Giordana (the organizers of Premio Internazionale Claudio Gora)

We are really honoured to have been chosen for this award and would like to thank everyone at Laboratorium Teatro in Rome for their support and encouragement. Especially Sergio Sivori for laboriously sieving sand for us ; )

(Wherever we travel with this production, the 200 kilos of sand are a nightmare…)

We hope to perform in Italy again soon!

Hannah Boyde and Sammy Metcalfe rehearsing before the Rome performance. In the background 200 kilos of wet sand spread out on the floor to dry… 

To read more about the Hamletmachine in Rome or Associazione Claudio Gora, check out these links:

http://www.assclaudiogora.it

http://www.laboratoriumteatro.it

http://www.groruddalen.no/spiller-hamlet-for-italienere.4443126-19208.html

http://www.teatroviviani.it/home/leggi.asp?id=921 

http://www.dramma.it/drammaturgie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=54 

Productions may no longer include:

Sand

Bubble Fluid

Real Mobile Telephones

Fake Blood

Cliff diving

Actors

Oystein will learn how to:

Sew

Iron

Speak German

Pip will learn how to:

Speak Norwegian

Get a good friend in the Arts Council

Balance a lawn mower on his chin

Miscellaneous:

We will not use Bable Fish for translations.

We will learn some Italian basics.

We will not piss off rights holders.

We will not piss off producers.

We will not piss off priests, muezzins or rabbis. 

We will be more gracious with our opponents (what d’ya think Sammy?)

We will design a set which is a giant chocolate fountain

We will complete a full length version of our show “Now You See It; Now You Don’t”

Note: Resolutions are made to be broken.

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