An outstanding creator of images

Martin Tulinius (born 1967). Self-taught director, scenographer, dramatist. Trained as a producer, specializing in broadcasting from Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College 1993. Co-founder of the Kaleidoskop theatre 1994. Artistic director of Opera Hedeland 2002-2004.

Artist Profile
Martin Tulinius’ professional career is spread out over three titles: theatre head, scenographer and director. He headed up the innovative and progressive Kaleidoskop theatre for 12 years, working not only in support of but as a distinctive co-creative force in the artistic level of the theatre.

However, Martin Tulinius’ artistic starting point is in scenography, in the visual. The performances he stages – and, sometimes, writes himself – are permeated by images.  His Dada from 2003 is a mental, theatrical collage of words and happenings that work together to create a performance in the visual style and tone of Dadaism.

As a director, Martin Tulinius is interested in existential drama.  One of his most recent projects is a staging of dramatist Jokum Rohde’s mental thriller-journeys through the 20th century.  Århundret (Century) was about someone who sold his soul to evil, set in an eternally dark, demonic universe in the Berlin underground.  As in his other theatrical performances, Martin Tulinius has gone beyond the realistic and psychological to create more abstract, imagistic performances that stimulate thought, questions and new frames of mind in the audience.

Along with his theatrical career, Martin Tulinius as an artist created the firm Sand’Art, which arranges sand sculpture festivals all over the world.  He has won several prizes for his own sand sculptures.

Current Productions

Havfruen / The Mermaid
(2005)
Martin Tulinius has created an elegant scenography of transformation to make for a very demanding performance.   It was created for a completely bare space, a former forge transformed into a poetic location deep below the water and a Romantic castle.  Martin Tulinius received the most prestigious Danish theatre prize, the Reumert Award, for his scenography. 
Kaleidoskop in collaboration with Cirkus Cirkör.
Staging: Katrine Wiedemann
Script: Nicole Maria Langkilde

Dada
(2003)
The performance takes place outside time and specific place.  Where the man Gariban is taken through extreme, boundary-breaking events in a performance created in the spirit, style and tone of Dadaism.
Toured in Helsinki 2003.
Authors: Oscar K. and Martin Tulinius
Director and scenographer: Martin Tulinius

On This Planet
(2002)
A musical performance poised between rock and opera. A performance that takes the spectator on a journey from birth to death in a mysterious, always disturbing universe, akin to the films of Lars von Trier and David Lynch.
Author: Anders Nordentoft, Derek Walcott
Composer: Anders Nordentoft
Director and scenographer: Martin Tulinius

K
(1999/2004)
In K, the audience is not just introduced to but led into author Franz Kafka’s universe. The performance is driven by dreams, demons and the subconscious.  The play is from 1999, but in 2004 a new staging was done for the Frederic Wood Theatre in Vancouver, Canada.
Author, director and scenographer: Martin Tulinius

Pierrot Lunaire
(1998)
The performance is based on composer Arnold Schönberg’s nightmarish story of Pierrot and the moon. Martin Tulinius and his staff have made into theatre what is normally only performed in concert.
Idea and concept: Martin Tulinius and Mikkel Harder Munck-Hansen
Direction: Martin Tulinius
It has been performed internationally, among other places, at Kampnagel Hamburg in 2000.

Review Extracts

“On This Planet is a remarkable statement about being human.”
Børsen (DK), On This Planet

”There is an understated intensity, a secure certainty that the words are strong, the content meaningful, which makes the production so good.  It is self-contained, has weight and consequence, and it is also beautiful to look at. ”
Jyllands Posten (DK), K

Pierrot Lunaire is a magical experience in luxury class, created by an exceptionally gifted theatre person who has given great care to light and sound, so we leave sated with images.” 
Jyllands-Posten (DK), Pierrot Lunaire