Desiring Machines
Desiring Machines (2013) was a theatre production by Erik Dæhlin. Desiring Machines was a musical theatre project or an experimental opera, based on a circle of female characters that was extended in each performance. The production was premiered at the Bergen International Festival in 2013.
In a visual and auditory space, Dæhlin collaborated with a selection of playwrights and writers to expose and overexpose different female characters.
A recording of Erik Dæhlin’s music was released by Aurora Records AS on 1 November 2024, as part of a pilot project in collaboration with Sceneweb. You can listen to the music HERE.
Information
(Objekt ID 35001)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | June 3, 2013 |
| Produced by | |
| Coproducers | Bergen International Festival, Brageteatret, Norwegian Centre for New Playwriting (NCNP) |
| Audience | Adults |
| Keywords | Musical theatre, Opera, Performing arts, Music |
| Running period | June 3, 2013 — October 24, 2014 |
| Duration | 40 minutes |
| Website | Desiring Machines, Brageteatret, Vimeo, Youtube, Spotify - utgivelse av Dæhlins musikk |
Desiring Machines by Erik Dæhlin portrays a series of historical and mythical female figures from antiquity to the present day, using narrative fragments, realistic images, surrealistic glimpses and leaks. Everything is part of the many-faceted desiring machine, the story or the body, connected in a staged collage where the audience is one of the participants.
Produced with funding from Det Norske Komponistfond (The Norwegian Composers’ Foundation), Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere (Fund for Performing Artists), Arts Council Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (travel grants for the performing arts).
Erik Dæhlin’s website contains the following information about the production:
“Desiring Machines
Desiring machines – an experimental opera based on a series of mythical female figures. Approx. 60`
Imagine a body. This body is a woman. She has a name. Several names, belonging to different women, collected and portrayed in a constantly expanding family album. The album constitutes a historical catalogue of differing realities.
Imagine that one of these realities is this body’s different parts and connections that each, but also collectively, produces a stream of desire. This desire produces reality.
Imagine that this circle of women casts shadows just as the one woman casts a shadow. In their shadows, figures appear, change, become distorted into another figure and disappear. Bound to this body, latently present in the room, they are all here.
A presence that happens through apparitions where closeness and intimacy may well be shown at a distance. A possibility where that which is distant can suddenly appear to be uncomfortably close. A performance in which automation and human increasingly form new connections en route to the future.
Desiring Machines is a musical theatre project based on a circle of female characters. In a visual and auditory space, we have, in collaboration with with a selection of playwrights and writers, attempted to expose and overexpose different female characters. Both by allowing them to stand alone, but also by allowing them to make connections with each other: a series of historical and mythical female figures from antiquity to the present day, using narrative fragments, realistic images, surrealistic glimpses and leaks. Everything is part of the many-faceted desiring machine, the story or the body, connected in a staged collage where the audience is one of the participants.
PERFORMERS
ELISABETH HOLMERTZ, singing and speaking voice ERIK DÆHLIN, concept, lighting, direction and composition
TORMOD LINDGREN, stage design and lighting JON TOMBRE, outside eye
HELOÍSA CAPELOSSI AMARAL, piano and clavichord AMUND SJØLIE SVEEN, percussion and video GUNNAR HAUGE, cello
MORTEN PETTERSEN, sound engineer THOROLF THUESTAD, sound facilitation
Text material by EDY POPPY, HANNE RAMSDAL, METTE KARLSVIK, EIRIK FAUSKE, MARCO DEMIAN VITANZA, MARILYN MONROE, HEINER MÜLLER, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE and PIER PAOLO PASOLINI.
Child’s voice: Alvhild Dæhlin Axelsen. Other music: Aria from Cantata no. 82 by J.S. Bach, "Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein" by Bruno Balz with Zarah Leander and "The soft complaining flute" by G.F. Handel with Elisabeth Holmertz and the Danish Chamber Orchestra.
Produced with funding from Det Norske Komponistfond (The Norwegian Composers’ Foundation), Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere (Fund for Performing Artists), Arts Council Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (travel grants for the performing arts). Co-produced with the Bergen International Festival, Brageteatret and The Norwegian Centre for New Playwriting. Produced by Produsentbyrået – Morten Kippe and Erik Dæhlin"
SOURCES:
Erik Dæhlin, erikdaehlin.no, 06.06.2013, http://www.erikdaehlin.no/desiring-machines
E-mail, Erik Dæhlin, 10.08.2024, uploaded by Sceneweb 12.08.2024
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Eirik Fauske | – Text |
| Mette Karlsvik | – Text |
| Heiner Müller | – Text |
| Pier Paolo Pasolini | – Text |
| Edy Poppy | – Text |
| Hanne Ramsdal | – Text |
| William Shakespeare | – Text |
| Demian Vitanza | – Text |
| Erik Dæhlin | – Concept/Idea |
| Erik Dæhlin | – Direction |
| Erik Dæhlin | – Composition |
| Tormod Lindgren | – Stage design |
| Amund Sjølie Sveen | – Video/Film |
| Morten Pettersen | – Sound (Lydteknikk) |
| Thorolf Thuestad | – Sound (Lydteknisk tilrettelegging) |
| Erik Dæhlin | – Light |
| Tormod Lindgren | – Light |
| Heloísa Capelossi Amaral | – Musician (Klaver, klavikord) |
| Gunnar Hauge | – Musician (Cello) |
| Amund Sjølie Sveen | – Musician (Slagverk) |
| Elisabeth Holmertz | – Singer |
| Elisabeth Holmertz | – Voiceover |
| Morten Kippe | – Producer |
| Jon Tombre | – Consultant (Ytre øye) |
Video documentation: Millimedia
| Bergen International Festival | June 3, 2013 |