Beat The Drum (2015)

Beat the drum: Walk is focusing on the present and future. How do we deal with the tremendous problems of the present and how to continue? Can art be a part of this new beginning or not? It is a strong urge for us to transform our work and ask new questions towards our aesthetics and ethics, a wish to construct new stories, new beginnings  and contexts. We are in search after urgent and new ways of sharing and opening up our work. Our ambition is to connect, opening the space and transforming it, evolving together with the audience in producing new realities and visions.

Beat the Drum: Walk deals with peoples concerns of living in a bubble, what kind of art is important today and how one can make new stories and connections? In the beginning of the performance we take the audience for a walk through the neighbourhood and ask people to contemplate around the future.
Through stories, bodies, and the space that we share, Verk Produksjoner creates a contemporary ritual that intensifies the understanding of our interconnectedness. People  have shared with us their dreams, anecdotes and thoughts of the present times. The performance is an ongoing research on our present times. “Beat the drum” is our first step in that process. Our question and interest is what do you see around you today, what do you wish to see around you today and what are you willing to offer?

 

They are sitting in a cafe, two men and a woman, she says:

-I thinks the current situation that we are living in is pretty cracky! It is pretty cracky. Per aspara at astra, I really belive in that
-whats that?
-through the tough things to the stars: Per aspera at astra
-Is it latin or italian or..?
-no, yes, yes, it´s latin.
-through the hell, through the hell you get to the stars or something.
-yeah, through the tough, tough times you get through, to the stars. And I think this is something very important. That we have to be aware, first of all, to change things, we have to be aware how things are.

 

Review by Grethe Melby at Scenekunst.no November 5th 2015:

When everything is connected to everything else, it is not so easy to know who is speaking, where somethings starts and ends, or what is more or less important. The question is whether it always is important to know that. Perhaps the need for these clear divisions are connected to our Western culture ́s division between body and mind, between you and me, culture and nature, man and technology. In the performance Beat The Drum, reflections upon these issues are happening concurrently and on many different planes. Such a situation could have become too much; quite overwhelming, incredibly confusing, or right out terrifying. Yes, we are on unsafe ground, but neither of these feelings occur when Verk are the organisers of the gathering. On the contrary; the atmosphere is filled with friendliness, quietude, openness and generosity, combined with a definite and decisive performance structure, and perhaps it is exactly the stringent disposition that contributes to the feeling of safety. (…) Throughout the performance we share the joy of mediating energy and emotions through music. Especially through long stretches of great drum-solos. We are invited in, into the rhythm, into a society, the traditional ritual function of the drums is taken into use for all it ́s worth. At the very end the invitation is emphasised as we are offered drinks, and we get a choice of beer or soft drinks. We are not only sharing music and stories together, having a glass together is a well known community builder. With this final act, the performance is framed by again activating the audience ́s bodies, this time through our pallet.

 

By and with: Saila Hyttinen, Anders Mossling, Fredrik Hannestad, Solveig Laland Mohn, Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk, Mia Keinanen, Pernille Mogensen, Palle Krüger. Supported by Norwegian Art Council. Photo, video: Camilla Jensen.

Premiered at CPH STAGE FESTIVAL JUNE 12TH 2015

Review from our show in Bergen during Meteor International Theatre Festival October 2015.

Beat the Drum, Oslo Video from Camilla Jensen on Vimeo.

 

Posted in Projects, TouringNow.