HEDDA AWARD nominee for best theatre performance 2007, and the winner of The Stageart prize 2007 of The Norwegian Dance- and Theatre centre.

Verk Produksjoner asks questions about the world and the theatre. This desire characterizes VP’s version of the classic drama Iphigenia in Aulis, written by Euripides in the [...]]]> Soon to be updated.

HEDDA AWARD nominee for best theatre performance 2007, and the winner of The Stageart prize 2007 of The Norwegian Dance- and Theatre centre.

Verk Produksjoner asks questions about the world and the theatre. This desire characterizes VP’s version of the classic drama Iphigenia in Aulis, written by Euripides in the 4th century BC. In the play the Greek commander Agamemnon offers to sacrifice his daughter to gods to have favourable winds to sail to Troy. Verk has been strongly influenced by Finn Iunker, who delights in ridiculing some of the world’s greatest literary heroes. At the same time Verk identifies with Iunker’s playful approach to the theatre as an art form.

Verk’s Ifigeneia is a political farce that has its roots in Greek tragedy. Social critique is directed at the insanity of war and the complete lack of a feasible reason for a war. With subdued vaudeville, epic acting and tragic clowns, the company reconstructs the events in the harbour of Aulis. They turn the story into trashy, satirical action with political undercurrents. Ifigeneia was nominated as the “best performance of the year” for this years Hedda prize. Hedda is the biggest theatre prize in Norway.

”Damn good theatre” – Morgenbladet(Oslo weekly) ”Interesting and entertaining performance” – Dagsavisen(Oslo daily) ”Amusing and entertaining experience” – NRK(Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), P2

Finn Iunker belongs to the playwrights most frequently performed abroad, but it’s not until Verk Productions that we have really been introduced to his dramatic work here at home. The company made [...]]]>

”Damn good theatre” – Morgenbladet(Oslo weekly)
”Interesting and entertaining performance” – Dagsavisen(Oslo daily)
”Amusing and entertaining experience” – NRK(Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), P2

Finn Iunker belongs to the playwrights most frequently performed abroad, but it’s not until Verk Productions that we have really been introduced to his dramatic work here at home. The company made a huge success with their staging of Iunker’s ’Iphigeneia’, a modernization of the Greek tragedy of Euripides, in 2006 at the Black Box Theatre. For this show, they were nominated for the Hedda Award and received the theatre award of Danse- og teatersentrum in 2007. This autumn it is the turn of the sequel ’Dealing With Helen’.

After several years’ siege of Troy, the Greeks are made aware that the cause ot the war, the abducted Helen, is not located in Troy, but in Egypt. The basis for the war is suddenly completely gone, and with Iunker´s tragicomic and satirical play, Verk takes us on an entertaining trip into the weird world of war.

Crittics:
“Med enkle virkemidler og masse humor er «Dealing With Helen» en både interessant og underholdende forestilling.” (Dagsavisen, les hele anm. her)
“Gjennom lek og humor trer et alvorlig budskap fram” (Nrk P2 Scenerom, Les hele anm. her)
“Meningsfylt og aktuell Helena-fabel” (Idalou.no Les hele anm. her) English translation here
“Skranglete krigssatire” (Klassekampen, Les hele anm. her)
“Sabla godt teater” (Morgenbladet, les hele anm. her)
” Teater med døds foragt” Information (Copenhagen Daily, les hele anm her)

Regi: Fredrik Hannestad. Skuespillere: Saila Hyttinen, Anders Mossling, Håkon Vassvik, Joao Pamplona, Mona Synnøve Solhaug, Nils Petter Mørland og Per Platou. Lyd/musikk: Per Platou og Fredrik Hannestad. Scenografi: Signe Becker. Lysdesign: Tilo Hahn. Orginaltekst: Finn Iunker. Dramaturg: Kristian Seltun. Støttet av: Norsk kulturråd og Fond for lyd og bilde. Co-produksjon Black Box Teater

In a kingdom the people were all drinking from the same source, The main river running through the state. This river got polluted. When the people drank from it, they got mad. Since they were all mad, they thought they were normal. Since they [...]]]>

In a kingdom the people were all drinking from the same source,
The main river running through the state.
This river got polluted.
When the people drank from it, they got mad.
Since they were all mad, they thought they were normal.
Since they thought they were normal,
They thought the king was the one who was mad,
Because they understood that he was different from them.
They wanted to overthrow the king,
Because of the king´s madness.
In order to calm them down,
And to keep his job,
The king drank from the polluted river.
The king went insane,
And the people continued to worship him.

Crittics: Underholdende dødsdans(Adresseavisa 30.sept 2011) Døde sjeler i titteskapet//Dead souls in the look-cabinet(Eng.trans.)(Aftenposten 19.nov.2010), Her finnes ingen, og minst av alle Gud (Scenekunst.no), En metafysisk komedie (Klassekampen 20.nov.), Du jeg og døden (Norsk Shakespeare og teater Tidsskrift)

« Perhaps something other than us exists, perhaps [...]]]>

Crittics:  Underholdende dødsdans(Adresseavisa 30.sept 2011) Døde sjeler i titteskapet//Dead souls in the look-cabinet(Eng.trans.)(Aftenposten 19.nov.2010), Her finnes ingen, og minst av alle Gud (Scenekunst.no), En metafysisk komedie (Klassekampen 20.nov.), Du jeg og døden (Norsk Shakespeare og teater Tidsskrift)

« Perhaps something other than us exists, perhaps there is more than being alive. But of that I know nothing. It is not me.

Pär Lagerkvist (born may 23. 1891, died July 11. 1974) was a Swedish author, poet, member of the Swedish Academy and winner of the 1951 Nobel prize in litterature. His authorship revolves largely around the subject of mans relationship to god. This is particularly evident in the novels Barabbas, Sibyllan and The dwarf. In 1920 he wrote “The Eternal Smile” which tells of a large group of dead people who are sitting somewhere in the darkness. Their location is unknown to them, perhaps nowhere, they sit and converse to pass the time, or rather, eternity. As thousands of years pass they become restless and start to question the meaning of it all. The enourmous congregation of the dead become agitated and finally they rise up, determined to seek out God and get an answer.

Verk Productions is adapting the text for the theatre for the first time. Springing out from a national theatre in miniature onstage, the artists strive after the writer’s own preferences for theatre:

“The new time demands a new form (…) To create an illusion of reality and speak only to the intellect cannot be the mission of theatre. The word should no longer be the sole ruler as a scenic means of expression, only theatre involving all our senses can master to convey the diversity of impressions, the state of feverishness and madness constituting the modern”, as it written in Pär Lagerkvist’s essay on modern theatre (written in 1918).

“If someone moves their hand straight out to the right, then slowly to their chest, where they draw the sign of a cross, then straight up in the air, which means nothing, then places a finger on their lips, like a seal, then draws an invisible circle above their head, and after that raises their finger, pointing at a secret star far off in space, which they cannot see, merely surmise; then still, ten thousand have done the same before them (…) It is gruesome.”   – From The eternal smile  Pär Lagerkvist

Verk Productions got The Hedda Award 2011 in the category of best production for Det eviga leendet/The Eternal Smile. The jury reasoned as follows:

“Based on an at home relatively unknown, but diverse story about the Human Being’s relationship to the Great Questions of Life, the artists behind the production of the year have created a thought-provoking, mythical production about an original topic.

This is an adaptation in which a witty text void of illusions is performed with intense involvement and sober distance, while unexpected theatrical effects continuously expand the metaphysical perspective. The result is a meaningful and witty philosophical fable, in which the artists continuously go in new directions, and have stage design, lighting and sound melting together in a challenging and exciting expression.”

Concept: Verk Productions. Text: Pär Lagerkvist, Max Frisch. Director: Fredrik Hannestad. Actors: Saila Hyttinen, Anders Mossling, Håkon Vassvik, Solveig Laland Mohnm, Signe Becker. Theatre Design: Signe Becker. Sound: Per Platou. Lights: Tilo Hahn. Co-produced: Black Box Teater.

   
“Låt oss akta oss för att säga att döden står i motsättning till livet. Det levande är bara en variant av det döda, och en mycket sällsynt variant”
-From Nietzsche ur Den glada vetenskapen”

Build Me a Mountain! Make me a mountain, not one of those half-finished ones like God created because he only had six days. From “Mr Puntila and his man Matti”

“Build Me a Mountain!” is VERK´s second performance about people revolting against God because they want to define their own [...]]]>

Build Me a Mountain! Make me a mountain, not one of those half-finished ones like God created because he only had six days. From “Mr Puntila and his man Matti”

“Build Me a Mountain!” is VERK´s second performance about people revolting against God because they want to define their own reality. The performance circles around the themes: how to relate to our own time and how to continue to live when all the illusions are gone.

Build Me a Mountain! 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.

Build Me a Mountain! is also a story about exile and escapism.  Maybe it was in protest or helplessness that they made an alternative reality in the Finnish countryside, as opposed to the harsh reality surrounding them: Europe was burning while they took refuge on an island of fiction, telling each other stories, discussing world peace and writing plays together. One main question they examined in different approaches was “the art of being human in an inhumane and complicated world.” Brecht writes: The play “Puntila” means hardly anything to me, the war everything, about Puntila I can write virtually anything, about the war nothing. The theatre company VERK believes this extraordinary encounter has a story to tell us today.

The Norwegian theatre-company VERK is known for their epic and vaudevillesque form of acting with satirical and political undertones changing swiftly between storytelling, acting and improvisation.

Instruction: Fredrik Hannestad. Actors: Saila Hyttinen, Håkon Vassvik, Anders Mossling. Musikk/sound: Per Platou. Lightdesign: Tilo Hahn. Scenographi: Signe Becker. Text: Daniel Wedel and VERK. Tekstdramaturgi: Daniel Wedel, VERK. Co-produksjon:  Black Box Teater and Baltic Circle Helsinki. Producer: Verk. Funded by: Arts Counsil Norway, Alfred Kordelinin Fonden in Finland, Finnish-Norwegian culture institute.

Worldpremiere in Helsinki Baltic Circle: 17 – 20 november 2011,
Black Box Teater, Oslo: 24 nov – 30 november og 1-3 desember 2011 kl. 19:00

“Build me a Mountain” review headlines:
“A dreadfull fantastic theatre-ritual” Huvudstadbladet
“Decadence in europe´s night” Scenekunst.no
“Bertolt Brecht meets the Hattifatteners” NRK
“Dokudrama in cirkusdressup” Dagsavisen
“An impressive but demanding experience” Klassekampen
“An Ivory Tower with sauna included” Morgenbladet