Run! Now!

At the webpage of Brageteatret the following, among other things, is written about Run! Now!:

"In 1986 eight year old Sara and three year old Buzhan flee their home in Iraqi Kurdistan. Saddam Hussein has declared Kurdistan a 'forbidden area' and even wild animals are shot. The siblings are refugees for eight years before they are granted asylum in Norway, they grow up in Tønsberg and they both train as actors. In Run! Now! they tell their dramatic story with humour and musicality in this highly topical performance.

Pia Maria Roll has made her mark as one of the most noteworthy theatre artists in the country and she has received several awards for her documentary productions. This is her first production for an audience of children."

Run! Now! is supported by Arts Council Norway. The production is part of the research and development project SceSam.

SOURCES:

Brageteatret, 17.03.16, http://www.brageteatret.no/forestilling/na-loper-vi/

Sentralen, 17.03.16, http://www.sentralen.no/arrangement/teaterlordag-ung-n-loper-vi

Chris Erichsen, Åtte år i helvete (literally: Eight years in hell), Scenekunst.no, February 11 2016:

"We who see and listen get to take part in a story in which we get a uniquely direct look into how these small children meet and handle the enormous challenges and struggles they are confronted with in their eight-year-long infernal wandering towards the liberating message in 1993 that they are accepted as quota refugees and allowed to travel to Norway and Tønsberg. The story has, despite being both upsetting and deeply moving, a comfortable, harmonic drive, in which a repeated effect is a current phone call between Sara and the children's mother. Here, Pia Maria Roll has, as many times before, had Kai Johnsen on her team as a dramaturge. It is obviously a lucky combination. Cautiously physical, choreographic incisions by Helle Siljeholm provides, with the finely tuned sound work by Jon Platou, the whole thing a nice, sometimes slightly queer character."

Lillian Bikset, Nøkternt, sterkt og personlig teater, med følsomhet, men aldri føleri (literally: Sober, strong and personal theatre, with sensitivity, but never sentimentality), Dagbladet, March 12 2016:

"The child's memories, the child's thoughts and the child's feelings, the child's accept and the child's protest are conveyed through a grown-up selection, with the grown-up's understanding of everything that was impossible to understand back then. This double perspective makes sure that the children of the audience understand. Run! Now! is a story with a lot of information. The selection wisely conveys the grand, comprehensive insights through the small, telling details. Some things both of them remember. Some things the elder sister has to tell her younger brother. Some things they have likely been told by others, the elder siblings, perhaps, or the mother, so often they now perceive it as memories. Much is also forgotten, unclear. As Sara says, in the very beginning of the performance, 'I have spent many years not telling this story. I haven't had the strength to relate to it'."

• The Hedda Award 2016 - Best production for children and youth