NEWS

Build me a Mountain
Brechttage in Brechthaus, Berlin 10/2 2012: on language and identity

VERK and Daniel Wedel is invited to Brechttage 2012 at Brechthaus in Berlin to talk about our work with focus on language and identity. Other participants include Rimini Protokoll and Nya Rampen from Finland, Staffan Valdemar Holm and Ulf Peter Hallberg also are invited from Sweden.

Eternal Smile
ICE STORM SHOWCASE, Joyce SOHO (20 min excerpt)
10.01.12 New York, U.S.

For the first time at the APAP, Quebec/Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden will present a series of exceptional showcases from the 7th to the 10th of January 2012.

The Norwegian theatre-company VERK has played numerous performances at Black Box Theatre in Oslo and is known for their epic and vaudevillesque form of acting with satirical and political undertones changing swiftly between storytelling, acting and improvisation. The group was founded in 1999 as a theatre collective. Their approach has always been to open up for all the possibilities in their work, mixing different styles and approaches. The result is often liberating and shocking. After starting as an actors collective the members have developed their own special roles developing the work even further.

VERK´s next performances circle around the themes: how to relate to our own time and how to continue to live when all the illusions are gone.

“The Eternal Smile” is VERK´s first performance in this cycle using an early text by the swedish author Pär Lagerkvist. It premiered in november 2010 at Black Box Theatre in Oslo. Here a large group of dead people are sitting and passing time telling each other stories and finally ending up revolting against God. Playing in theatres and festivals this summer/ autumn 2012.

“Build Me a Mountain!” is VERK´s second performance about people revolting against God because they want to define their own reality. It is a story about two persons, the Finnish playwright and business-woman Hella Wuolijoki and the German playwright Bertolt Brecht and their creative encounter in Marlebäck in the Finnish countryside during the summer of 1940. Verk has found diaries, letters, stories and plays from that decisive period and will blend fictional scenes with documented material. World premiere in Baltic Circle Festival 16. november 2011.