Odin Teatret (scandinavian theatre laboratory - Denmark)
Czech premiére
Preslova 9, 60 min
330 CZK / 270 CZK
29. 05. 21:00
Iben Nagel Rasmussen was the first actor to join Odin Teatret ensemble after its arrival from Norway into a provincial little Danish town Holstebro. In Itsi Bitsi, the leading personality of Odin works with both the years preceding her arrival at Odin Teatret – years of hitchhiking round the world, of music and poetry, of political radicalism and personal experience with drugs – and the fragments of some of her previous famous roles – not as quotations and examples, but as revealing metaphors: the mute Katrin from Brecht´s Ashes, the wandering shaman from Come! And the Day will be Ours, and the Trickster from Talabot. Her own story is connected with the twists of life and work of Eik Skaloe (the first beat poet to sing in Danish, who committed suicide in India in 1968), and thus she tells of the whole generation from the beginning of the sixties.
Text Iben Nagel Rasmussen Direction and text montage Eugenio Barba Music Jan Ferslev, Kai Bredholt Producers Teatre Potlach and Odin Teatret
Performing Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Jan Ferslev and Kai Bredholt
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´.
Claudio Cumani, Il Resto del Carlino, Italy
Rhythm, scenes representing the visions from the past and reflexive breaks speaking from the present are given with a milimetre-like precision. Both musicians and actors accompanying her, Jan Ferslev and Kai Bredholt, create bridges and bring humour into the drama. Barba´s performance is a moving manifestation of a life force that a theatrical phenomenon can radiate.
Ruggero Cappuccio, Spain
Odin Teatret. A legendary Scandinavian cultural centre and theatre laboratory was founded in 1964 by one of the fathers of modern theatre, Eugenio Barba. Since the sixties, this laboratory of the acting art devoted itself to the research of theatrical communication through voice, movement, gesture and contact with other cultures (Amazonia, Peru, Japan etc.). Thus it reached an expression that can be described as „Euroasian“. The ensemble gathered numerous awards (Danish Academy Award, Mexican Theatre Critics´ prize, Diego Fabbri prize, Pirandello International prize, the Sonnig Prize by the University of Copenhagen, Academy of Dramatic Arts Award in Hong Kong, Florenzio Award in Uruguay), and several times they gained Grand prix at BITEF festivals - including the best actress for I.N. Rasmussen.
The ensemble performed not only at famous international stages, but also in geographically remote areas and in front of socially disadvantaged audiences (at refugee camps, prisons and institutions for mentally ill). Even though it never tried to be a political theatre, it always was one – thanks to its ability to freely ask questions concerning the established orders: traditional forms of narration and expression as well as cultural codes of the society. Odin Teatret´s performances are collages of dreamy pictures, without a traditional coherent plot. The pictures are then experienced through senses, not intellect. Next to the creation itself, Odin Teatret is so far engaged in organizational, educational and publication activities (A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology, Grotowski´s study Toward a Poor Theatre etc.) and the research is further conducted under the umbrella of the International School of Theatre Anthropology ISTA (founded in 1979). It is a unique intercultural and interdisciplinary laboratory for theatrical research and a network consisting of artists, producers and theatre scholars from all over the world.
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