Nordic Theatre Laboratory
Eugenio Barba (b. 1936 in Italy), director and theatre theoretician. Founded Odin Teatret in Oslo in 1964, after working with Jerzy Grotowski in Poland and studying at several schools in Asia. Also studied French, Norwegian literature and the history of religion at Oslo University. In 1966, the theatre was invited to Holstebro, Denmark. Barba is one of the most important reformers of the theatre in our time. He has received a number of Danish and international awards for his work, including the prestigious Danish Sonning prize. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities in Aarhus, Ayacucho, Bologna, Havana, Warsaw, Montreal, Plymouth and Hong Kong.
Artistic Profile
”If the Nordic countries have a theatre god, it is Odin”, a prominent history of Danish theatre begins its section on Odin Teatret. And the theatre lives up to its name: with Barba in front, it has achieved almost mythic status, both nationally and internationally.
Since the 1960s, the company has travelled the globe and played on leading international stages as well as in geographically isolated areas and before socially marginalized groups at, for example, refugee camps, prisons, and mental institutions.
Odin has never been known as political but always has been so by virtue of its eminent ability to raise questions about the established order: traditional forms of narration and expression as well as mythic and cultural codes of society.
The performances are collages of dreamlike tableaux without a traditional cohesive storyline. They are experienced through the senses instead of the intellect: bodily expression, mime, eye movement, dance, props, masks, puppets, songs, music, and a special use of the voice predominate and make the meaning of the words secondary. The performances often make use of several languages simultaneously and, inspired by their many journeys, the troupe has achieved a form of expression that may be described as “Euroasian”.
The theatre’s Danish history began in 1965, when the small underground theatre from Oslo was on tour with Ornitofilene [The Bird-Lovers]: a shockingly innovative production that inspired a number of young Danish theatre folk and intellectuals.
The mayor of the small rural district of Holstebro had the untraditional idea of offering the theatre facilities and financial support if they would settle down there. The goal was to make the municipality more attractive through the development of local cultural life. The constellation, which received the nickname the ‘Holstebro model’, was soon an example for a variety of municipalities.
After a European tour in 1969, their international breakthrough was a reality. In 1979, Barba established ISTA (the International School of Theatre Anthropology): A uniquely intercultural and interdisciplinary theatrical research laboratory and network, consisting of actors, dancers, musicians, directors and theatrical producers – mainly, from Japan, Bali, India and South America – and a number of theatre scholars from universities all over the world.
Current Productions
Ensemble Performances
Ur-Hamlet
(2006)
Saxo, the monk, unearths Hamlet's skeleton from the basements of the castle, evokes his life and interprets it in Latin. He addesses the spectators in this archaic and defunct language, unveiling and commenting the vile intentions of the caracters and their deeds. He wanders through the performance, is at the centre of the action, identifies himself with its development and struggles to avoid its uncontrolled events, seeking a way of escape.
Language version: Danish, English, Italian or Spanish
Don Giovanni all'Inferno
(2006)
Don Giovanni all'Inferno is a performance in two acts, directed by Eugenio Barba. In it, Don Giovanni wanders on the bottom of the sea, in the belly of sea-wrecks, among splintered pieces of the statues that made history. Odin Teatret confronts the apparent outdetedness of a classical work. It is a heretical evaluation, deeply respectful of a tradition and therefore engaged in struggling against it.
Language version: Italian
Andersen's Dream
(2005)
A circle of artists gathers in a garden, waiting for a summer night when the setting sun will dance. A friend from another continent is about to join them. With him, dreaming with open eyes, they will depart on a pilgrimage into the regions of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.
Language version: Danish, Spanish or English
Salt
(2002)
A female odyssey. A woman travels in search of a loved one who has disappeared. A phantom accompanies her in a dance, which brings her closer to an awareness of a definitive absence. Based on the story Letter to the Wind by Antonio Tabucchi. Co-produced with Fondazione Pontedera Teatro.
Language version: Italian
Mythos
(1998)
A performance about the value and death of myth. Based on poems by the well-known Danish poet Henrik Nordbrandt, it asks what myth is for us today, and what could it be.
Language version: Danish, English, Italian, French or Spanish
Inside the Skeleton of the Whale
(1996)
A variation on Before the Law by Franz Kafka, which tells of a man from the country who, out of submission and obedience, does not dare to pass through the Door of the Law. The performance interweaves metaphysical and nihilistic urges, subterranean plots, and black apocryphal versions of the Holy Books.
Language version: Danish or Italian
Ode to Progress
(1996)
A performance in which the huldrefolk – the hidden people: elves, trolls, imaginary animals, fairies, and gnomes – celebrate the new millennium.
Language version: Danish, English, Italian, French or Spanish
Itsi Bitsi
(1991)
Actress Iben Nagel Rasmussen tells of the years preceding her arrival at Odin Teatret, years of hitchhiking around the world, of music and poetry, of political radicalism and drugs. Fragments of the actress's previous performances are interwoven. Musicians/actors Jan Ferslev and Kai Bredholt also perform.
Language version: Danish, Italian, English or Spanish
Solo Performances
Actresses Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Roberta Carreri and Julia Varley have created several independent solo performances in which they demonstrate Odin Teatret’s working methods.
Workshop and Barters
The theatre offers a number of work demonstrations, workshops, and unique ”barters”, in which songs, dances, and other cultural activities are exchanged with local groups and with people who rarely have an occasion to express themselves through art.
See www.odinteatret.dk/productions/productions_frameset.htm for info about solo performances and workshops.
Review Extracts
“Odin Teatret’s Andersen soup tastes like a dream – made with equal parts of commitment, craft and concealment…. Barba has set his Andersen’s dream on a ship in which we the audience sit, chained like slaves, in rows around a three-stage oval... The stage ship is constructed claustrophobically, so the floor and ceiling are mirrors. And the ship’s cargo room can become darker than the blackest nightmare, perfect for the musicians’ devilishly percussive inferno of chains and washboards.”
Information (DK), Andersen’s Dream
“In Ode, elves, fairies and dwarves want to celebrate the achievements of humanity in light of the new millennium. And we follow the footprints of a lively street party: a parade with human-like masks, unusual musical instruments, explosive sketches, punctuated by human cruelty. Behind the smile, the agony of pain; behind the simplicity of the sign, the chaos of the times. But in this case as well, we find in Barba, this prophet of heresy, the poetic core that permeates all the festivities: in this unusual actor ensemble is the heritage of nomads and marginality, lived by those who do not ‘do culture but are culture’.”
Il Resto del Carlino (IT), Ode to Progress
“Roberta Carreri inzeniert die Liebespassion leidenschaftlich, voller Theatralik. Aus ihrem Koffer rieseln die sandigen, salzigen Erinnerungen und werden am Schluss in ein wunderbares Bild münden. Sämtliche Färbungen und Töne ihres Schmerzes speit sie in allen nur erdenklichen Höhen, Tiefen und Dissonanzen aus.”
Neue Westfälische (DE), Salt
“Plus qu’un théâtre expérimental, il nous donne à voir un théâtre de l’expérience, entendez du vécu et de l’émotion: c’est le sens de la parole laissée au chant et à la poésie.”
Coulisses Revue Théâtrale (FR), Mythos
International Tours
2007
Teatro Tascabile di Bergamo (Bergamo/IT)
Magdalena Turkey (Ankara/TR)
Complesso Monomentale di Santa Sofia (Salerno/IT)
Teatro Quirino (Rome/IT)
Segnali Experimenta Festival Internazionale del Teatro di Gruppo (Urgnano/IT)
Sala Farnase (Poggio Mirteto/IT)
Teatro di Terra (Velletri/IT)
Magdalena Spain - Piezas Conectadas Festival (Barcelona/ES)
Institut de Teatr (Barcelona/ES)
Teatro Cantharide (Bologna/IT)
The Grotowski Institute (Wroclaw/PL)
International Theatre Festival FARMA 2007 (Prague/CR)
2006
Festival International de Teatro Experimental de Quito FITE-Q (Quito/EC)
CCBB Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro/BR)
Modena Teatro Festival (Modena/IT)
National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center (Taipei/TW)
Teatro di Pontedera (Pontedera/IT)
Universita di l'Aquila (Aquila/IT)
Sala San Fernando (Don Bosco/IT)
Teatro il Piccolo (Forli/IT)
Ravenna Festival 2006 (Ravenna/IT)
Universita di Bologna (Bologna/IT)
Compagnia di Teatro Koreja (Lecce/IT)
2005
Teatro Stabile di Torino – CRUT (Torino/IT)
Teatro Ridotto (Bologna/IT)
The Centre for Study of Jerzy Grotowski's Work (Wroclaw – Krzyżowa/PL)
Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych/Film Production Studio (Wroclaw/PL)
Teatro Tascabile di Bergamo (Bergamo/IT)
Stazione Leopolda (Florence/IT)
La Casa del Teatro (Novazzano, CH)
Sala San Fernando, Instituto Don Bosco (L'Aquila/IT)
Festival Internacional de Londrina (Londrina/BR)
The University of Eurasian Theatre (Caulonia, IT)
Magdalena USA (Providence/US)
Arlecchino Errante (Pordenone/IT)
World Theatre Festival (Zagreb/HR)
BITEF Festival (Belgrade, SB-MO)
Scena Plastyczna KUL (Lublin/PL)
Teatro Potlach (Gallipoli/IT)
Tour in Great Britain organized by Organic Theatre (Plymouth/UK)
8th International Festival of Experimental Theatre (Quito/EC )
Tour in Italy Organized by Accademia Olimpica (Vicenza/IT)
Théâtre du Soleil, La Cartoucherie (Paris/FR)
