When the Dead Awakes
A Play of Dreams
When The Dead Awakes by Stella Polaris was a ritual play where actors and audience wandered through history without a script but with a choreography that was in constant evolvement and motion. The evolvement occurred as new actors added their own rituals from cultures as far away as the Black Sea but still within the frame of the Nordic expression. This was a process that would go on. Stella Polaris hoped for an altered perception as well as increased skills, stage design and music.
Information
(Objekt ID 4826)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | June 20, 2008 |
| Produced by | Stella Polaris |
| Audience | Families, Youth, Adults, Children |
| Keywords | Historical play, Jester Theatre, Theatre, Dream Play |
| Running period | June 20, 2008 |
| Website | Stella Polaris |
Requirements to venue
| Blackout | No |
When The Dead Awakes by Stella Polaris was based on local history: The burial sites at Borre and in other parts of Vestfold have revealed different truths as technology and research have uncovered new sides of the histories of their contents.
Through studies of the art objects, the written sagas and myths, different sources such as Ibn Fadlan, Snorre Sturlasson, Tacitus, Thor Heyerdahl and modern scientists' theories on how the Ynglinge People migrated from the Black Sea to Scandinavia in When the dead awakes. Also, not least, through collaboration with Midgard Historic Centre and Terje Gansum, Stella Polaris recreated acts and events described related to funerals, ritual weddings and fertility rites.
Who were the people building these graves? How did they think? How did they act? And last, but not least – where did they come from? These were the core questions of Stella Polaris’ fable When the Dead Awakes.
Stella Polaris had invited national and international theatre workers and artists to join the project. Vestfold University College and the artist Tollef Torsnes were cooperative partners within stage design, and through Stella Polaris' participation in the European Voluntary Service program EVS (European Voluntary Service), 18 young actors and culture workers from various European countries participated with authentic folk art performances from their respective cultures. Stella Polaris believed that merging new knowledge of Nordic Mythology with different European cultural heritages, hitherto unknown common grounds would be revealed. Based on this work Stella Polaris wished to present a vision of a common ancestry and a hope for global unification in the setting of a Nordic historical play.
Source:
Stella Polaris, stella-polaris.com, 01.08.2010, http://www.stella-polaris.com/en/performances/when-the-dead-awakes
| July 1, 2012 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| June 30, 2012 – Borrehaugene Park | New opening |
| July 3, 2011 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| July 2, 2011 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| July 1, 2011 – Borrehaugene Park | New opening |
| July 4, 2010 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| July 3, 2010 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| July 2, 2010 – Borrehaugene Park | New opening |
| September 6, 2009 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| September 5, 2009 – Borrehaugene Park | Show |
| September 4, 2009 – Borrehaugene Park | New opening |
| July 6, 2008 – Borrehaugene Park (Vestfold Festspillene) | Show |
| June 29, 2008 – Borrehaugene Park (Vestfold Festspillene) | Show |
| June 28, 2008 – Borrehaugene Park (Vestfold Festspillene) | Show |
| June 20, 2008 – Borrehaugene Park (Vestfold Festspillene) | Worldwide premiere |
| Vestfold Festspillene | June 20, 2008 |
"All the contributing, young as well as elder, buzz with intense energy as they throw themselves into the history, using savagery, playfulness and love. The audience wanders along with the historic murmur from the burial grounds to its own daily life."
Fredrik Rütter (2009). Tønsberg Blad