| Title | File type | Publiseringsdato | Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program for Oslo Internasjonale Teaters produksjon "The Mercy Seat" (2011) | 2011 | Download |
The Mercy Seat
The Mercy Seat was a staged reading of the play by Neil LaBute (USA) with Oslo International Theatre in 2011.
The reading was planned for Sunday September 2011, to the day ten years after the terror attacks in USA. Less than two months prior Norway experienced a domestic terror attack of its own: July 22 Anders Behring Breivik shot and killed 69 people at the Labour Party's youth camp at the islet Utøya. The same day he had placed a car bomb outside of Oslo's government quarters. When the bomb exploded eight persons were killed.
Oslo International Theatre went through with the planned reading.
Information
(Objekt ID 30669)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | September 11, 2011 |
| Produced by | Oslo International Theatre |
| Based on | The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute |
| Audience | Adults |
| Number of events | 1 |
| Keywords | Reading, Theatre |
| Running period | September 11, 2011 — September 11, 2011 |
| Website | Oslo Internasjonale Teater |
At the webpage of Oslo International Theatre the following, among other things, is written about The Mercy Seat. The text was published prior to performing, but after July 22:
"Sunday September 11 Oslo International Theatre is to do a staged reading of the play The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute at Dramatikkens hus in Oslo.
The date is not randomly chosen, the action of the play takes place in New York September 2001, and it is about two persons who try to relate to their own lives in the wake of the World Trade Center terror attacks. This reading has been planned for a long time, and we chose this date especially to mark the ten year anniversary for the attacks in New York.
With shock and sorrow we now, unfortunately, have to state that we all of a sudden have become a theme on the current agenda. We would have been very happy to perform this reading with the safe distance of ten years and an ocean. At the same time we think that in a situation such as our current it is even more important that art is present as a place to gather, think and try to collectively relate to our lives and our fate as humans, as a society, as individuals functioning in interaction with each other.
We hope that the reading of The Mercy Seat can be our little contribution to the process Norway now needs to go through, processing what has happened. As part of this a ten-minute talk prior to performance will now be included; about how we as a society can relate to such a collective trauma.
The speaker will be Professor Lars Weisæth from Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies.
The Mercy Seat is a story about two persons who in the middle of the chaos post September 11 no longer know how to live their lives. In the confusion after the disaster they have troubles realising the unfathomable that has happened, and who try to relate to impossible moral dilemmas, drawn between consideration for others and opportunism.
September 11 2001 Ben Harcourt is in the flat of his mistress Amy Prescott. He should have been at work, in World Trade Center. But there is no longer a World Trade Center, and Ben can be pretty sure his family thinks him dead. As night falls Ben and Amy examine the difficult choices in front of them, choices of moral as well as emotional character."
Neil LaBute is an award-winning American playwright and movie director who has had success on NYC's Broadway, in London's West End and in Hollywood. Plays by Neil LaBute include Fat Pig, The Break of Noon and the Tony-nominated Reasons To Be Pretty.
Sources:
E-mail from Oslo International Theatre, 30.08.2012
Oslo International Theatre, oslointernasjonaleteater.com, 14.09.2012, http://oslointernasjonaleteater.com/2011/07/11/the-mercy-seat-av-neil-labute/
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Neil LaBute | – Playwright |
| Michael Hallbäck Sciarrone | – Translation |
| Øystein Ulsberg Brager | – Direction |
| Philip Thorne | – Dramaturge |
| Elisabet Hagli Aars | – Actor |
| Rune Storsæther Løding | – Actor |
| Michael Hallbäck Sciarrone | – Stage manager (Teatersirkus) |
| Espen Hjort | – Director’s assistant |
| Lars Weisæth | – Other (Innleder) |
| September 11, 2011 – Hallen, Norwegian Centre for New Playwriting (NCNP) | Opening night |