14th Theatre Meetings - OKNO 2011
"North by Northwest"14th - 22nd October 2011
4th - 6th November 2011
MOVIES
"THEATRE MEETS RITUAL" - film
- Odin Teatret 1976 | 60'
In May and June 1976 Odin Teatret toured in Venezuela. This film shows barters in Kuripe, a Venezuelan black village, and with the Yanomami, an Indian tribe of the Upper Orinoco in Amazonia. It includes fragments from the Book of Dances and Come! And the Day will be Our by Odin Teatret, as well as Yanomami dances and the shaman's enactment of his tribal legend about the tortoise which killed the jaguar.
Film with English subtitles.
"ASCENT TO THE SEA" - film
- Odin Teatret 1982 | director: Torgeir Wethal | 60'
In order to be seen amongst the crowd, the actors began to use tall stilts. Death was nine feet tall and wore a white tie and tails. In order to be heard they used drums and trumpets. This colourful army which advanced dancing and attacked in formation, broke the daily rhythm, surprising and imprisoning the public in their midst as they advanced to different sites where scenes of the performance were enacted.
In the mid seventies, using traditional processions and parades as a point of departure, Odin Teatret created a street performance Anabasis which could move through towns and villages. Spaces in the town, which normally went unnoticed, were transformed into a stage.
The film follows Odin Teatret's street production Anabasis in Peru. It is a typical example of Odin Teatret's unique use of the urban environment as a theatrical space.
Film with English subtitles.
"DRESSED IN WHITE" - film
- Odin Teatret 1974-1976 | director: Torgeir Wethal | 35'
A strolling player arrives in a small village in southern Italy. She is masked. She always carries her drum with her. She tries to summon the inhabitants. They wonder at her, give her food, but would rather not be disturbed in their work with the tobacco harvest, in their card games or in their wedding ceremonies. The children think she moves in a strange way, almost like an animal. Only to the dead in the graveyard can she tell her story without being rejected. The public solitude of the actor's journey is presented lyrically and realistically in this fictional film, whose title is taken from an Italian folk song.
The character, which Iben Nagel Rasmussen created for the role as town crier, later became a well-known figure in the street and dance performances of Odin Teatret.
Film with English subtitles.
"ON THE TWO BANKS OF THE RIVER" - film
- Odin Teatret 1978 | director: Torgeir Wethal | 56'
There is martial law in the country Odin Teatret has come to. The authorities keep a sharp eye on theatre groups, who create disorder, gather crowds, because when people collect together anything can happen. In 1978 Odin Teatret travelled to Peru. The film, which shows how they managed to play their performances and come into contact with people, in spite of the restrictive conditions, is essentially about the strategy of insubordination by means of theatre. Odin Teatret is seen training in a slum, organising parades in Indian villages, performing in an Ayacucho prison and taking part in several barters.
Traditional celebrations had not been forbidden. The authorities knew that fireworks were less harmful than paving stones. Some people invited Odin Teatret who agreed to perform on condition the local people accepted a barter: they should also show something of theirs.
Film with English subtitles.
"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE IDEA" - film
- Odin Teatret 1991 | director: Torgeir Wethal | 71'
The film is based on the production by Odin Teatret: The Gospel According to Oxyrhincus. Between 1985 and 1987 it was performed in 12 countries in Europe and South America. The Gospel According to Oxyrhincus is the story of the revolt buried alive, the story of Antigone, and her brother Polynices. And the story of Zusha Mal'ak, the Jew, who is searching for the Messiah and comes upon a society, which has already found its Messiah. Here they speak Coptic and Old Greek, two dead languages, which nobody any longer understands.
Film with English subtitles.
"THE MILLION" - film
- Odin Teatret 1979 | 60'
The Odin Teatret performance The Million was played in different versions between 1978 and 1984. This video version is from 1979. Marco Polo (1254-1324) was the first European to explore the Far East. After 25 years of travelling, he returned to Venice, which he had left at the age of 17. He told about everything he had seen: the splendours and the horrors. His listeners laughed at him and called him Millione - because everything he described was a million times more incredible than anything they had imagined. While in prison, he dictated his autobiography, but his contemporaries laughed at it, just as they had laughed at him, and nicknamed his account, The Million, The Book of Wonders, the tale of the mystery. The Million reflects the days and the nights, the meetings between Odin Teatret and landscapes and cities: South America and Asia, Oslo and Bali, Amazonia and Holstebro. Actor's tales, improbable, exaggerated, mystifying.
Film with English subtitles.
