Kill them all!
Game of sorrow
Kill them all! was a theatre production by The National Theatre, produced in 2013. Kill Them All! is a spectacle of mourning about the financial crisis in Europe, by Tore Vagn Lid, who also directed the production.
Kill them all! was the second part of Tore Vagn Lid's Game of Sorrow trilogy. The first play was Punishment at Logen/Hordaland Theatre in 2012, the third was The Gospel of Judas during The Ultima Festival at The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in 2013.
The mourning plays have no "actors" and no "musicians", no "singers", but only players, or performers. Inspired by the old board games' rules and narratives, the aim has been to find an expression reconciling a societal overview with existential insight, to seek the individual in the system and the system in the individual, and to seek contexts and rules that unite seemingly isolated and individual destinies in one and the same game.
Information
(Objekt ID 33696)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | February 27, 2013 |
| Produced by | The National Theatre |
| Based on | Kill them all! by Tore Vagn Lid |
| Audience | Adults |
| Language | Norwegian |
| Keywords | Theatre |
| Running period | February 27, 2013 |
| Duration | 2 hours |
| Website | NATIONALTHEATRET, Kill-Them-All bloggen |
Requirements to venue
| Blackout | Yes |
Kill them all! was nominated for The Hedda Award 2013 in the production of the year category.
Tore Vagn Lid was given The Norwegian Critics' Award 2012/2013 for Kill them all!.
In her speech during the award ceremony Anette Therese Pedersen said the following, among other things, on behalf of The Norwegian Critics' Association:
"The production, opening at The National Theatre in February, is a rare example of how the theatrical space may function as an arena for reflection and discussion, without compromising with artistic quality.
(...)
The statistics over the unemployed and the homeless, and not least, the suicide statistics, are given faces and voices. But they also represent larger groups, and this way the production treats themes such as the lack of power and a social crisis, intellectually and emotionally, pointing forward and backwards in time. Through extraordinary sharp precision the performance keeps its clarity as well as its complexity, balancing empathy and distance, so that the spectator holds onto deep concentration from the start until the end."
The complete speech (in Norwegian only) can be read at the webpage of Norwegian Critics' Association.
At the webpage of the National Theatre the following, among other things, is written about Kill them all!:
"In Europe there is a social and economic crisis. A crisis driving an increasing number of people to suicide. In the theatre production (game of sorrow) Kill them all! Tore Vagn Lid takes his audience into a continent on the edge. The expedition - from an outpost far north on the board - searches for the individual within the system, and the system within the individual. But which are the rules of the game?
When someone lifts the arm to vote for a decision in the European financial centre Frankfurt, another lifts his arm to shoot himself out of humiliation in Madrid. And when someone despair that the youth unemployment in Spain is sky-high, further north people cheer the fact that the cost of holiday homes along the coast takes a dive.
In Tore Vagn Lid's theatre expedition the divisions between musicians and actors are removed and replaced by a top-trained team of players. With and without instruments the expedition attempts a brand new strategy - DUB theatre! The musical genre, which arose as a political protest in Jamaica, replacing the soloist with the mixing desk, revolutionised the history of music and cleared the way for reggae, rap and electronica, is mixed with the opportunities of the theatre. From here the spectacle of mourning moves into an unexamined landscape of audio play, chamber play, concert and confrontation.
Tore Vagn Lid has made himself a name in Norway and Europe with a series of relevant, expression-rich productions."
Sources:
The National Theatre, nationaltheatret.no, 01.03.2013, http://www.nationaltheatret.no/Kill+them+all!.b7C_wRjUZd.ips
Norwegian Critics' Association, www.kritikerlaget.no, 13.11.2013: http://www.kritikerlaget.no/nor/pages/852-teaterkritikerprisen_20122013
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Tore Vagn Lid | – Script |
| Tore Vagn Lid | – Direction |
| Kristian Lykkeslet Strømskag | – Dramaturge |
| Ada Hesjevoll | – Stage design |
| Tore Vagn Lid | – Stage design |
| Linn Therese Michelsen | – Costume (Kostymekonsulent) |
| Aleksander Andreassen | – Video/Film (Videodesign) |
| Åsmund Bøe | – Video/Film (Videoansvarlig) |
| Klaus K Kottmann | – Video/Film (Videoansvarlig) |
| Tore Vagn Lid | – Musical arrangement |
| Tomas Nilsson | – Musical arrangement |
| Tore Vagn Lid | – Sound design |
| Tomas Nilsson | – Sound design |
| Anders Schille | – Sound design |
| Sven Erga | – Sound (Lydansvarlig) |
| Kai Nicolai Priddy | – Sound (Lydansvarlig) |
| Einar Thorbjørnsen | – Sound (Lydproduksjon) |
| Laila Goody | – Actor |
| Mariann Hole | – Actor |
| Kai Remlov | – Actor |
| Ågot Sendstad | – Actor |
| Dino Dikic | – Musician |
| Tomas Nilsson | – Musician |
| Annikka N. Andersen | – Mask design |
| Eva Hauge | – Props |
| Ida Nilsen Aune | – Stage manager |
| Hans R. Jarn | – Stage Manager |
| Hilde Løken | – Lighting supervisor |
| Silje Underhaug Fosseli | – Director’s assistant |
| Birgit Hove | – Assistant Stage Designer |
| Liv M. Tønnessen | – Costume production supervisor |
| Silje Underhaug Fosseli | – Prompter |
| Kirsti Holm-Glad | – Producer |
| Åsmund Bøe | – Assistant (Videoassistent) |
| Torbjørn Haugen | – Administration (Informasjonsansvarlig) |
| Ellen Lorenzen | – Administration (Markedsansvarlig) |
Writer and date unknown, Morgenbladet [Oslo]:
"Kill Them All! offers a combination of reflection and identification that could have made Bertolt Brecht proud and Brennpunkt (a Norwegian documentary TV show) envious. [...] You may not think that a spectacle of mourning about suicide in Europe sounds very merry, but still you should see Kill Them All! Politically it is combustible, rhetorically it has the power to strike, and it is newsworthy. Kill them all! is the dream production for theatre people who want more topical, more relevant theatre onstage"
Writer and date unknown, Klassekampen [Oslo]:
"An artistic victory for The National Theatre and Tore Vagn Lid. [...] involving and meaningful political theatre."
Writer and date unknown, Aftenposten [Oslo]:
"Vital political theatre (...) strikes like a fist"
Writer and date unknown, Dagbladet [Oslo]:
"In his new play Tore Vagn Lid proves intelligent empathy."
Writer and date unknown, Vårt Land [Oslo]:
"If the European crisis has not affected us yet, the spectacle of mourning Kill them all! will manage to awaken the sleeping."