When We Dead Awake

When We Dead Awake by Baktruppen was made as a version of Ibsen’s text intended to be understood where the Norwegian language is not understood - which is also, according to Baktruppen, valid in Norway. Thus the production was structured into sequences, movement patterns and sounds. This was meant to be a way to develop new understanding of Ibsen.

Excerpt from the processed text (literal translation in brackets):

Da kjerringa døde (When his wife died)
gikk han sporenstreks (he immediately went)
til den spirrevippen av en (to the featherweight of a)
lege og sa orfisk Ja, (doctor and said orfisk, Yes)
vi får lage barn (we should make a child)
i magen din (in your tummy)
vi (we)
nå (now)
da (then)

Flåkjefta som et steinras (Bigmouthed as an avalanche of stones)
beiler vi (we court)
ikke til himmelen, ikke til jord (not the sky, not the soil)
Men fastlandet inni deg, kjære- (but the mainland within you, dear-)
kan ikke bakvaskes mere (can not be slandered any more)
Sol, måne- (Sun, moon-)
mye mekk (lots of fuss)
Å sove er enkelt, å drømme er lett. (Sleeping is simple, dreaming is simple.)

When We Dead Awake was often performed outdoors.

The text was printed in the book Lærestykker 1990 (literally: Learning Plays 1990), published by the publishing house Oktober forlag in 1990.

Supported by: The municipality of Bergen, The Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs/MFA, the county of Rogaland and The Audio Visual Fund.

Sources:

Baktruppen, 31.12.2010, http://www.baktruppen.org

Knut Ove Arntzen and Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk, ed. (2009). Performance art by Baktruppen. First part.Oslo: published by the publishing house Kontur forlag

Baktruppen's archive, donated by Baktruppen.04.03.2011

Steinar Wiik, 30.08.1990, Aftenposten [Oslo]:
"In Bak-truppen's When we dead awake we meet a culture that has gone under - and, in best case, is about to awaken. But that doesn't mean this is sleepy theatre! Not even Charles Marowitz has rebelled more against Ibsen than Bak-truppen does here. At the outer level it is about an entirely changed text version, a kind of jokester queer mirror. [...] In reality it is a surreal paraphrase over the master's confrontation with the role of the artist, with the collision between culture and nature. This version is held in a style more buffoon-life than Dario Fo's theatre. But it also has an inner sobriety hitting your solar plexus and dragging you in. The coherent precision at all levels is admirable. [...] The apparent lack of reverence sometimes shows the greatest reverence. Not least Ibsen was a rebel! Such a version should have him awaken in his grave."

Hans K. Mjelva, 15.02.1990, Studvest [Bergen]:
"I had a strong feeling much passed me by. Still there was something about the performance that made it exciting to be there, and it made me want to see the play as well as BAK-truppen again. The performance expression must get much of the credit for that."

Thomas Breivik, 10.02.1990, Bergen Arbeiderblad [Oslo]:
"Baktruppen finds inspiration in the symbolism, in some sequences it becomes clearer in the company's interpretation, with mime and a simplified text. But one can question to which degree Baktruppen wishes to communicate with its audience. The acting style and dramaturgy send cryptic signals, apparently understood by 'the fold', but where the rest of us feel excluded. It is not sufficiently involving just to think that a performance is strange and different. We should preferably be able to sense the theatrical expression as forcibly necessary, but now it could at times function as theatrical impulses more than dramaturgic symbolism."

Jon Askeland, 10.02.1990, Bergens Tidende [Bergen]:
"In short the play gets a character of ritual madness, where practically every man carries his little source of light around his existence, comparable to a tunnel, a labyrinth or a closed circle, and in which gibberish through the loudspeakers are as meaningful or meaningless as other speech. [...] As for the performance itself, the piece seems somewhat untidy - plastically and technically."