Odin Teatret tour performances

Performances

Inside the Skeleton of the Whale
Tobacco Factory (Bristol) - Thu 27/10-Sat 29/10 • 8pm
Alsager Arts Centre (Crewe) - Thu 3/11-Sun 6/11 • 7.30pm
(except Sat 5/11, 4.30pm)
Variation on Before The Law by Franz Kafka
Actors: Kai Bredholt, Roberta Carreri, Jan Ferslev, Tage Larsen, Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Julia Varley, Torgeir Wethal and Frans Winther
Text and direction: Eugenio Barba
Kafka's parable Before the Law tells of a man from the country who, out of subjection and obedience, does not dare to pass through the Door of the Law.
Into this theme, Inside the Skeleton of the Whale weaves metaphysical and nihilistic urges, subterranean plots and black apocryphal versions of the Holy Books. This is a performance about the essence of rituality in theatre, that which remains when theatre has lost everything except for the skeleton of the action: the underlying stories which guide the actors, the relationship between actors and spectators, the search for contact and silence in which each individual can capture a personal meaning. The public space of the theatre turns into a paradoxical space of shared solitude.

Doña Musica's Butterflies
Nuffield Theatre (Lancaster) • Mon 31/10 • 8pm
with Julia Varley
Text and scenography by Julia Varley. Directed by Eugenio Barba.
Doña Musica’s Butterflies is a performance about the theme of identity, which Doña Musica, the protagonist, defines as “a tendency to exist”. Doña Musica presents herself every time her butterflies are taken out of their box. She tells the story of how she escaped from the Odin Teatret performance Kaosmos, and recounts her origins and adventures through theories of modern physics (such as the “butterfly effect”, and chaos theory) and with poems and tales from other times.

Odin Teatret Performance Demonstrations

Created by the single actors of Odin Teatret, these performance demonstrations attempt to explain and show the technical process that is at the base of the performer’s activity: the physical and vocal work, how improvisations are used to develop a role, how the actor and director collaborate during the construction of a performance. Skilfully weaved technical explanations, dances, biographical information, exercises, memories, improvisations and fragments of old performances, these demonstrations bring to light the professional and technical rigour with which the Odin actors work.

Paths of Thought - with Torgeir Wethal
The Nightingale Theatre (Brighton) • Mon 24/10 • 9pm
Tobacco Factory (Bristol) • Sun 30/10, 4pm
Alsager Arts Centre (Crewe) • Fri 4/11 • 11.30am
An illustrated lecture about the significance of improvisation in building a role. Having been with Odin Teatret since it’s beginning in 1964, Torgeir leads us through forty years of his changing work processes as an actor, letting us witness the craft behind his performances.

White as Jasmine - with Iben Nagel Rasmussen
Goldsmiths College (London) • Mon 31/10 • 6pm
Tobacco Factory (Bristol) • Sun 30/10 • 6.30pm
Iben evokes Odin Teatret's performances from 1966 until today. She illustrates the changes her voice has undergone, from the closed room (which allows the actors to reveal their inner world) and the street performances (the meeting with the exterior world) to the space which words create through their meanings and sounds.

The Flying Carpet - with Julia Varley
Rose Bruford College (London) • Fri 21/10 • 6.30pm
University of Manchester (Manchester) • Wed 2/11 • 3pm

Text is a carpet that has to fly far away: this is the first sentence of the demonstration, where thirty years of texts from the Odin Teatret performances in which Julia Varley has acted are run through in an hour. Few essential explanations accompany the vocal work that exemplifies the passage of words from the written form to space, from the coldness of paper to the freedom of interpretation.

The Dead Brother - with Julia Varley
Alsager Arts Centre (Crewe) • Sun 6/11 • 12pm
An explanation of how performances are created at Odin Teatret. It presents the different phases of the process in which text, actor and director interact and it shows how the actor creates his/her own stage presence until the final synthesis in which the text, through the form and precision of the actions, acquires a rhythm and density of meaning.

The Echo of Silence - with Julia Varley
Nuffield Theatre (Lancaster) • Tue 1/11 • 6pm
This is a performance which describes the vicissitudes of the voice of an actor and the stratagems she invents to "interpret" a text. In theatre, which seems to be free of the codes we find in music, the actor needs to create a labyrinth of rules, references and resistance to follow or refuse in order to achieve a personal expression and recognise his/her own voice.

Text, Actions, Relations - with Julia Varley and Tage Larsen
Alsager Arts Centre (Crewe) • Sat 5/11 • 9am
Using a scene from Shakespeare’s Othello, Tage and Julia construct a dialogue between Othello and Iago, presenting a process based on the creation and elaboration of physical and vocal actions. The two actors, through improvisation and composition, develop a dynamic physical score which becomes the basis for their encounter when they incorporate the text.

Traces in the Snow - with Roberta Carreri
The Nightingale Theatre (Brighton) • Mon 24/10 • 7pm
University of Manchester (Manchester) • Wed 2/11 • 11am
Every performance tells a story. The characters belonging to the world of fiction become credible reality for the spectator thanks to the actor's technique. In this performance the technique itself becomes the protagonist. The actress carries on a dialogue with the secrets which precede and follow the building of a character and the creation of a performance.

Whispering Winds
University of Plymouth (Exmouth) • Wed 26/10 • 7.30pm
An ensemble performance demonstration about the difference between theatre and dance with Kai Bredholt, Roberta Carreri, Jan Ferslev, Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Julia Varley, Torgeir Wethal and Frans Winther.
The performative civilisation of European origin suffers from the division between theatre and dance, almost as though these were different universes of expression. They are, in fact, a single world which develops into distinct genres and yet is rooted in the experience of how to let the performer’s body-mind become scenically present. All performance, however, is dance at its physical and mental roots - a dance of energy and thought.

Body and Words
workshop with Tage Larsen
£70, £50 concessions
Tage will work on the actor’s physical
actions and presence, and on
deepening an awareness of
vocal training.
Participants will be engaged in the
production of a series of actions
and the creation of a montage,
observing how the text experiences
changes when varying the actions
and vice versa.
Where: Exeter Phoenix - Exeter
When: Tue 25/10 • Wed 26/10
What time: 10am-4pm (Tue)
1pm-4pm (Wed)
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Where: University of Manchester
When: Mon 31/10 • Tue 1/11
What time: 10.30am-4.30pm

Shoot The Arrow Around The Corner
workshop with Torgeir Wethal
£100, £80 concessions
Participants will work on creating
a base for the development of their
personal physical training,
concentrating on improvisation
with fixed elements and actions, as
well as on quality of scenic presence,
through the interplay of intentions
and oppositions in thought and action.
Where: Tobacco Factory -Bristol
When: Fri 28/10 • Sun 30/10
What time: 10am-2pm

The Dance of Intentions
workshop with Roberta Carreri
£60
Roberta’s work will be divided in two
parts: the first will be concentrated
on the actor’s physical training
and on the awakening of the
actor’s presence.
The second part on work with the
sonority of the voice in order to
develop vocal actions in the space.
Where: University of Bristol
When: Sat 29/10 • Sun 30/10
What time: 10am-3pm

The Dance of the Orixá
University of Plymouth - workshops
with Augusto Omolú
Augusto Omolú has developed
a particular technique of training for
actors and dancers based on the
Orixá dances from the Afro-Brazilian
tradition of Candomblé.
This technique develops different
forms of energy that successively

can be used independently from
the original form.
Please note that these are closed sessions