Jug meg en saga* (Lie a saga for me)

In the historical article Perleporten Teatergruppe. Gruppas historie, redigert og utarbeidet av Karl Hoff, Oslo, april, 2009 (literally: Perleporten Teatergruppe. The history of the company, edited and processed by Karl Hoff, Oslo, April 2009) the following is written about Jug meg en saga (’Lie me a saga’):

"Work on the script began in March ’76. From June onwards, we worked collectively on the text and direction in rehearsal room 1 at Oslo Amatørsenter, at Trafo at Tøyen in Oslo. The other artists developed their contributions to the production separately, and gradually everything was brought together at Trafo, right up to the final days of intensive rehearsals and last adjustments in the theatre and concert hall at Henie Onstad Art Centre.

The production received a positive, though mixed, reception in the press. Personally were of the opinion that a production is constantly developing through its encounter with the audience, and it was natural for us to take the criticism and our experiences from the performances on board, and to consider how we could best communicate what we wanted to say. This was an ongoing internal discussion within the group, which led to us presenting a tighter and somewhat shortened version of the play one Sunday in January 1977 at Scene 7, at the nightclub Club 7. We felt that the work had borne fruit. Our approach to the text and direction now worked as we had intended.

Following these first few performances at Høvikodden and in Oslo we left for a tour in February 1977, in a borrowed car with a trailer. The tour went to Skien, Arendal, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen and Notodden. We performed Jug meg en saga and Knoll og Tott (’The Katzenjammer Kids’), giving a total of 20 performances over two and a half weeks. In Stavanger, we had been invited by Rogaland Teater, under theatre director Kjetil Bang-Hansen, to perform Jug meg en saga for two evenings in the theatre’s Intim-Scenen.

This was followed by occasional performances of Jug meg en saga in Eastern Norway: Rådhusteatret in Ås, Vestby Folkehøyskole, Panorama Kino in Eidsvoll, the teaching academy in Hamar, the main hall at Maihaugen Lillehammer – and, in between these, a number of performances in Oslo, including at The National Academy of Theatre."

SOURCES:

Helge Reistad’s private archive. Donated by Helge Reistad, 06.09.2017

Mette Brantzeg’s private archive. Donated by Mette Brantzeg, 23.10.2023

Perleporten Teatergruppe’s archive. Donated by Karl Hoff, 10.05.2009

Erik Pierstorff in Dagbladet 1977, date unknown:

"Sometimes it changes styles so swiftly it is a joy in itself. The actors put on white gloves, and in the suggestion of an old-fashioned folk dance they present an image of the rigid, loveless sex life of a bourgeois marriage as so many experience it. And all of a sudden the connections between business and emotions, our sense of life and our aggression become not intrusive, but understandable. And frightening. [...] And now the funding bodies have to understand this, too. If our cultural politics isn't organised in such a way that it can recognise and support the source of talent emerging here, then there is something wrong with it. Then we must change it, because it is not working as we have all been told it should. Somebody must have lied.(...) In the meantime the other theatres can recognise the opportunity and invite Perleporten - perhaps to the second-largest stage venues. That is where I think this production would work best. Do you hear me? Somebody has to pull themselves together. Perleporten already has."

Kjell Johanssen in Arbeiderbladet 1976, date unknown:

"The aforementioned contributions weren't all good, but the five members of the group, who have written and directed the production and all perform in it, at times create stage presentations that surpass much of what one sees in professional theatres in terms of imagination, daring and a determination to make theatre out of simple ideas, which they develop into scenes that fill the entire stage.[...] They shuffle across the floor like groups of housewives at a dance class, blow a trumpet, and appear provocatively in Brechtian formations driven by rhythm. The eroticism is so explosive it could make Section 211 of the Penal Code jump, yet presented with such touching naïveté that it could pass muster in Sunday school.[...]It would be most regrettable if a group such as this, working with such purpose and with an eye to the future, were not to receive a share of the funding available for the arts."

"Arab" in Telemark Arbeiderblad, date unknown:

"Jug meg en saga is a play that addresses its audience with a directness unlike anything I, for one, have ever experienced. Perleporten has not only created an incredibly good text; they perform it with such intensity and at such close quarters that the audience’s reactions gradually begin to merge into one another. You laugh uproariously at burlesque conceits and brutal irony, but the laughter scarcely has time to die down before you find yourself in the midst of a heart-rending, naked humanity – and then, God help you, you laugh at that too, even though you do not want to."

Lasse Tømte in Gateavisa, January 1977:

"Their decency towards the material is what grips me the most in Jug meg en saga. When violence and the exploitation of sex are to be presented it must be difficult to avoid using those very same things for their suggestive effect. Violence is difficult to describe without at the same time depicting it. Perleporten has succeeded in doing so. They have consistently avoided playing on the audience’s alienation. They depict it instead, displaying an honesty and a decency that leaves everyone disconcerted."