The Tiger Garden

The Tiger Garden was a theatre production by Hollow Creature. The Tiger Garden was the last part of the trilogy In memoriam to Identity based on texts by the American writer Kathy Acker.

Information

(Objekt ID 2422)
Object type Production
Premiere September 27, 2000
Produced by Hollow Creature
Audience Adults, Youth (from 16)
Keywords Multidisciplinary, Theatre
Running period September 27, 2000  
Website
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On the webpage of Hollow Creature the following is written about The Tiger Garden:

"Technology as a sensory fellow actor:

The Tiger Garden is a role play based on the principle of choice and effect, put into system by computer programming.

The garden is the structure and the tiger is the game. The process is non-linear and can be presented in many different varieties. There are 12 scenes of readily prepared performance material. These can be performed in different combinations, chosen randomly every night.

The rules of the game are logical as well as irrational, just and unjust. The structure of the game is labyrinthine: there are many ways to reach the aim. Hence the game will seem new every time it is performed, as a hypertextual dream play in which the different geographic, mental, linguistic and character-related changes constitute the very premise of the scene.

The seductive, hypersexual and sadomasochist world was a reality for Acker and many of her contemporaries. What separated Acker from her circles and her time was that she wrote about it. She put forth an intense, powerful and near obsessed intelligence which very well knew the boundaries for the real as well as the unreal, the meaningful and the meaningless. Acker's work confronts us with a phantasmagoria of a dream world, in which different realities overlap and sometimes are forced together.

From the beginning it has been clear that the use of technology would be an important effect in our approach to this reality. An underlying wish has been to work in close collaboration with the technology, in such a way it is given a vital placement considering the aesthetics as well as the structure. The compilation of live activities and specially developed video and sound programs allows the use of music and video in playful interaction with the performance as a whole. The production would have been impossible to realise without these compilations.

The Tiger Garden has been developed in close collaboration with the performers. Since the beginning of the process the material has developed as the performers' response to Acker's texts. This is also reflected in the dramaturgy, developed by the full company until the very time of opening."

The Tiger Garden was supported by Arts Council Norway/The Norwegian Culture Fund and The Audio Visual Fund.

Gerd Zoe Christiansen won The Hedda Award 2001 in best visual design category for her stage design for The Tiger Garden.

Sources:

Hollow Creature, hollowcreature.no, 20.09.2011, http://www.hollowcreature.no/

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award 2001, www.sceneweb.no, 08.11.2012, http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/23910/Heddaprisen_2001-2001

Performance dates
Navember 21, 2001 20:00 – BIT Teatergarasjen, Norsk Dramatikk Show
Navember 20, 2001 20:00 – BIT Teatergarasjen, Norsk Dramatikk Show
June 3, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
June 2, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
June 1, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 31, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 30, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 29, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 28, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 27, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 26, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
May 25, 2001Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater New opening
October 1, 2000Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
September 30, 2000Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
September 29, 2000Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
September 28, 2000Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Show
September 27, 2000Store scene (Vika), Black Box teater Worldwide premiere