The Art of Being Tamed

The foundation for The Art of Being Tamedby De Utvalgte is described as follows at the webpage of Black Box Teater:

"In a cultural-historical perspective we have been different from the animals since Eve and Adam left Eden. From birth to death we are taught to adjust to the cultural norms and values defining us as inside or outside, adjusted or uncomfortable.

Can it be that we will always carry a longing to be part of nature, and that this longing reflects our fundamental feeling of loneliness?

On her way into the woods Little Red Riding Hood is told to follow the right path, and not give in to the temptation of leaving it. She is driven into the wild and ends being eaten.

The Art of Being Tamed takes a look at the beautiful and the cruel, at losing one's way and being afraid of one's self and the nature, not to suffice and to fall outside of the accepted – at the human need to tame and be tamed."

Boya Bøckman won the Hedda Awards 2012 in the category of best visual design for The Art of Being Tamed.

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason:

"Stage design is often today the most exciting aspect of many productions, and whether the visual takes a minimalist or maximalist form, the stage image may add an exciting dimension of its own to the performance. At times this year's winner lets his particular talent be led by a chief stage design project, and successfully so. But the winner gets the award for having created a dizzyingly beautiful three-dimensional universe complementing and giving life to a text that is both simple and mysterious, into which the rich, diverse visual expression opens endlessly many free associations.

The best visual design award goes to Boya Bøckman for a theatrical (in the best possible sense of the word) video and light design for De Utvalgte's The Art of Being Tamed at Black Box Teater."

The Art of Being Tamed also won The Norwegian Critics' Award 2012.

Therese Bjørneboe delivered the award on behalf of The Norwegian Critics' Association, and said the following, among other things, in her speech:

"There is a particular delight in giving the award to a company that to such a high degree gives the impression of functioning as an artistic collective. The core of De Utvalgte consists of director Kari Holtan, actor Torbjørn Davidsen, video artist Boya Böckmann, and dramaturge Anne Holtan. But actors such as Randi Rommetveit, Kari Onstad, Pelle Ask and Jørgen Langhelle are to a high degree part of the project. In each part of the process, not least from the actors' side, the productions are highly personal.

The most obvious example The Art of Being Tamed breaks new ground, is the use of 3D video. The audience is equipped with cardboard glasses - like in the movies. When putting on the glasses the stage floor the video is projected on rises - like a hyper-realist, sculptural room, while the actors on the floor get out of focus. If one removes the glasses, the film projections become blurry. This way the spectators may choose and switch. And manipulate their own experiences.

The use of 3D contributes to making the spectators responsible, and this attitude to the audience is like a red thread in the production of De Utvalgte.

(...)

This year's Norwegian Critics' Award goes to the company De Utvalgte. They have for long deserved such an award. But with The Art of Being Tamed, with its world wide premiere at Black Box Teater last year, De Utvalgte demonstrated its ability to surprise - renewing and giving oneself new challenges - and through that, the artists made the theatre more unpredictable."

You can read the full speech at the webpage of The Norwegian Critics' Association (Norwegian only).

Supported by: The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (travel grant/performing arts) and Arts Council Norway.

Sources:

Black Box Teater, blackbox.no, 07.07.2011, http://www.blackbox.no/content/titlePresentation.php?tid=2098

De Utvalgte, www.deutvalgte.no, 21.09.2018, http://www.deutvalgte.no/portfolio_page/kunsten-a-bli-tam/

The Hedda Awards, 29.05.2012, http://heddaprisen.no/pub/heddaprisen/main/?&mid=1031&aid=1030

Sceneweb on Norwegian Critics' Award, www.sceneweb.no http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/30091/Kritikerprisen_20112012-2012

Writer and date unknown, Dagbladet [Oslo]:
"Scarily beautiful. Again De Utvalgte shows distinct voice and vision, representing the important alternative theatre. The Art of Being Tamed is a meditation over themes the rational consciousness only has limited access to."

Writer and date unknown, Vårt Land [Oslo]:
"A magical image world. Aesthetically the company surpasses most of Norwegian theatre. (...) The Art of Being Tamed is innovative performing arts at a high level."

Writer and date unknown, Scenekunst.no [Oslo]:
"De Utvalgte builds in its own way a bridge across the hellish gap between the classical textual theatre and the post-dramatic theatre, between theatre and visual arts, between the independent field and the institutions."

Writer and date unknown, Norsk Shakespeare- og teatertidsskrift [Oslo]:
"A fascinating and original meditation over the modern human's loneliness."

• Æddaprisen 2012 - Samtidsrelevant prosjekt, mindre scene (under 300 plasser)

• Æddaprisen 2012 - Samtidsrelevant prosjekt, mindre scene (under 300 plasser)