And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing

Most of the installations in  And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing has musical functions, but at the same time, they are equipped with lenses and censors. They create and project their own images, while creating shadows and reflections spread around the stage room and interacting with one another in a larger complex expression. All the installations are kinetic (mechanically, manually, electronically), as are the sources of sound, not to forget the actors operating all the apparatuses during the span of the performance. The stage buzzes of activity.

The artists in Verdensteatret have been working on the machines for two years. In And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing they produce worlds of music, images and fragments from stories and travels, structured by the not always reliable memory. Through complex programming the iron waste’s beauty and the character of the material are awoken to life.

Physically the work appears as a landscape of highly original kinetic sculptures that activate a diversity of animation techniques, micro puppetry, music, lights and shadow play. All objects produce art and are also a part in it. The idea of simultaneous perspectives and multiple functions tied to each object creates a work of works.

"We enter a state of excited surprise that all we wonder about starts to sing instead of giving answers".

The world premiere on the new work of Verdensteatret And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing was part of the program at Ultima ‘10 Oslo Contemporary Music festival.

And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing was supported by Arts Council Norway, OCA, Performing Arts Hub Norway and the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs/MFA (travel grant/performing arts), The Audio Visual Fund, The Fund for Performing Artists, The Consulate General in Guangzhou, The Consulate General in Shanghai, The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, The Consulate General in New York and The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Sources:

BIT Teatergarasjen, autumn program 2010. 06.09.2010:

http://www.bit-teatergarasjen.no/article/348

E-mail from Lisbeth J. Bodd, 05.10.2011

Hobbelstad, Inger Merete (10.09.2010). Review titled  I et speil, i en gåte (literally: In a mirror, in a riddle). Dagbladet, dagbladet.no, 07.102.2010, http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/09/10/kultur/scene/sceneanmeldelse/anmeldelser/13332633/
"What do they want with this, I wonder? It’s not easy to know. But it doesn’t matter. The independent theatre company named Verdensteatret dances to the music in its own head and its And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing is performance art and an art installation as much as it is a theatre performance, a meditation room without words, lasting an hour, in which video, light, sound and twirling sculptures merge in a higher unity. And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing is challenging and avant gardist. And it is poetic and at the same time free of clichés. "

Valberg , Anna Helen (10.09.2010). Lyspæras dramatiske liv (literally: The dramatic life of the light bulb). Scenekunst, scenekunst.no, 05.10.2011, http://www2.scenekunst.no/egenkritikk_7470.nml
"Verdensteatret crosses the limits for what performing arts can be, creating productions with elements of sound, light, image and film, but in which apparatuses and instruments operated by small people characterise the experience. Because theatre is basically about creating associations, images and stories inside the heads of the audience, this too is theatre. The difference is that the human isn't (alone) in the centre. The dream images and robotics are under the magnifying glass, so to speak. (...) The production remains lo-fi, but complex in all the elements it embraces. Sometimes it becomes difficult to capture this many impressions at the same time, and sometimes we think: What if the bicycle wheel could sound its own sound, instead of all other kinds of sound? It would have been simpler, perhaps in both terms of the word, but still maybe as effectful."