Salt-N-Pepper serverer den tredje sjimpanse* (Salt’n’Pepper are serving the third chimpanzee)

Salt'N'Pepper serverer den tredje sjimpanse* (Salt’n’Pepper are serving the third chimpanzee) by Søstrene Andrews discusses the 1980es and 90es and in particular the youth heroes of the company, the most-selling female rap group ever, Salt'n'Pepa.

Søstrene Andrews is a theatre company consisting of the two auteurs and performing artists Maria Dommersnes Ramvi and Hildur Kristinnsdottir. The production is the second by the company. The first, Søstrene Andrews: Faen, verden brenner* (Andrews Sisters present: Fuck, the world is burning) was the graduation performance of Ramvi and Kristinnsdottir when they finished Norwegian Theatre Academy in Fredrikstad (University College of Østfold).

In the production Salt'N'Pepper serverer den tredje sjimpanse the audience meets the female rappers Salt and Pepper who, while they entertain with rap, dance, changing of clothes, climbing and more, tell how it is to be a female entertainer as of today. In this very rapid performance Salt, the fair-skinned, serious, introvert and idealistic (in the manner of wanting to save the world) and her darker companion and opposite Pepper, who is extrovert and ready to entertain, played out against each other and taken advantage of by dark horses.

Additionally, in Salt'N'Pepper serverer den tredje sjimpanse, they are continuously interrupted and corrected by Nina Eileen Sponnich in the role of chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall. Goodall sits at a level above the stage, observing it all. The well-known Norwegian feminist Berit Ås also takes part in the performance through a widescreen, mainly as a source for feminist exclamations.

In the program of Black Box Teater Salt'N'Pepper serverer den tredje sjimpanse was presented like this:

"The rappers Salt-Maria, Pepper-Hildur and Jester-Spinderella meet social psychologist Berit Ås and Dr. Jane Goodall to exchange ideas, sing, break and find meaning and coherence in a jungle of political correctness, indifference, selfishness and dependency."

The project was supported by Arts Council Norway, Spenn.no, The Fund for Performing Artists and the art production centre Seanse.

Sources: Black Box Teater Oslo, http://www.blackbox.no/, 19.10.2010, http://www.blackbox.no/content/titlePresentation.php?tid=2026&displayNav=false

Scenekunst, http://www2.scenekunst.no/forside.nml?category=, 1910.2010, http://www2.scenekunst.no/artikkel_6546.nml

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.

"The story is when everything comes to all pretty basic. Woman is suppressed and the world is ending. Love. But the way it is told is a bit too fragmented and a bit overdone, I think. The room is filled with car tyres, the rope ladders are hanging from the roof and the girls can climb them like apes. Here is a ghetto wall on the one short side and a silvery disco wall on the other. The girls mix in classical ballet steps in hip hop, ballet shoes into rap outfits. They put forth sentences of facts while they violently sob. Rap music, dancing and the stage design of visual signs in the performance one has to order to a whole oneself. It is as if the parts of the story do not totally fit, the story seems a bit constructed. But there is also much that is nice."

Maja Løvland,24.11.2009, Review titled Kvinnen er undertrykt og verden går under. Love. (literally: Woman is suppressed and the world is ending. Love.), Scenekunst, scenekunst.no, 19.20, 2010, http://www2.scenekunst.no/artikkel_6546.nml