Snow

Snow was a collaboration project between Samovarteateret AKA The Samovar Theatre AKA Samovar and the company Pikene på broen. It opened February 2 2006 during the festival Barents Spektakel. The production was made during a three week long workshop with eight actors from Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Finland and Norway.

Information

(Objekt ID 10149)
Object type Production
Premiere February 2, 2006
Produced by The Samovar Theatre
In collaboration with Pikene på broen
Audience All
Language Norwegian, English, Sami, Kurdish, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Finnish and Russian
Keywords Theatre, Dance, Site spesific performance
Running period February 2, 2006  
Website Samovarteateret, Aftenposten

Requirements to venue

Blackout Yes
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January 7 2006 Samovarteateret AKA The Samovar Theatre AKA Samovar started working on the production Snow, in which the script was inspired by the book of the same name, written by the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who later the same year received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Snow by Samovarteateret and Pikene på broen was made through a process in which the performers switched between working with improvisation, poems, texts and songs from all the different countries.

Script/shape and direction of the production Snow was made by Bente S. Andersen. This work started the autumn of 2005. The performance included performers from the regions of Kaukasus (Asjerbaijan, Turkey) and Barents (Arkhangelsk/Russia, Northern Finland, Kirkenes/Norway).

The production was performed outdoors in three different venues. Part one; behind the building called malmklang, part two; inside the burnt-down malmklang and part three in the Pavillion Park in which a Greek amphi in snow had been built, framed by hundreds of ice lamps.

The theatre production Snow was about love, borders and building bridges. As an effect the different languages, nine in all, were used very consciously. The actors performed dialogue in for instance Azerbaijani, Sami and German, Norwegian, Kurdish and Finnish and so on. At times parts of the text were translated to English as a security net to develop the production and make it clearer for the audience.

Source: Samovarteateret, 17.12.2010, http://www.samovar.no/

Contributors (13)
Name Role
Bente S. Andersen – Idea
Bente S. Andersen – Direction
Ole Arnt Bye – Music
Sigrid Sæterhaug – Music
Niels Aage Windberg Jensen – Lighting design
Matanat Abbasova – Actor
Eva Eklöf Mørkeset – Actor
Sverre Porsanger – Actor
Espen Rafaelsen – Actor
Volkan Sarioz – Actor
Turid Skoglund – Actor
Aynur Yildirim – Actor
Nikolay Shchetnev – Dancer
Performance dates
February 2, 2006 Worldwide premiere
Press coverage

"Underneath the boots it crackles. A hymn from somewhere in Kaukasus cut through the winter evening. The actors dance around us and drive us into the shell of Malmklang – the former cultural centre of Kirkenes which burned down in 2005. In the raw set we get a firework of a performance about love, borders and building bridges inspired by Orhan Pamuk’s Snow. Eight actors performing in nine languages from Sami, Norwegian, Russian, via Finnish to Turkish and Kurdish. Not even the actors understand what the other says. It doesn’t matter, the action reach our hearts."

Excerpt from review in Aftenposten February 5 2006

Read the whole review (in Norwegian) on http://www.aftenposten.no/kul_und/article1214698.ece