Gokk

The theatre performance Gokk by Maria Tryti Vennerød took use of a satiric and sometimes farcical form, asking questions about how to relate to one's home village as the new life in the city has made its habits and longings, and how the rural areas relate to the people moving away from it – and to itself. Subjects such as lacking roots, going home, depopulation and the feeling of inferiority make the foundation for the text and were important elements in the performance. Tryti Vennerød herself called the play a comic/sentimental drama.

The performing art project Gokk started in 2004, as a collaboration project between actress Kristin Aafløy Opdan, whose background is from Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London, Håkon M. Vassvik and Jarl F. Bjørk, both educated as actors at The Norwegian Theatre Academy in Fredrikstad (Østfold College University), an academy particularly concerned with visual dramaturgy, and Maria Tryti Vennerød.

Gokk was first performed in Sogn og Fjordane Theatre in November 2007 and received over all nice reviews. In 2008 Gokk visited Black Box Teater.

In Gokk the tension between the comical and the sincere, the absurd and the deeply moving, was a subject of play. The production switched between different acting styles and was open and fragmented in its expression, but with a story-based dramaturgy seeking to engage and entertain its audience.

Gokk was the directorial debut of Maria Tryti Vennerød.

Source: The spring program of Black Box Teater 2008 [Oslo]

"The direction is taken to the near extreme. The acting switches between different styles of expression, from different degrees of stylisation to techniques from silent movies and pure farce. It is entertaining and often funny and the directorial debutante has made many successful choices. But staging one's own text is not without problems. She does not manage to keep the necessary distance all the way, and sometimes this results in standstill, a bit too much repetition and overdone use of effects. The ensemble seems to be drilled and manages the changes well. The one to exceed the others is Idun Losnegård, making Bjørg a super-excessive caricature of an overwrought shrew."
Landro, Jan H. (23.11.2007). Review titled Er det slik de/vi er?* (Is that how they/we are?) Bergens Tidende, bt.no, 12.11.2010, http://www.bt.no/bergenpuls/scene/article445754.ece

"Here come spry singular scenes and individual performances. Some are involving, others frustrating. Maria Tryti Vennerød mocks the most, but is not running a tight enough ship. Hence the meeting between the people from Gokk is both playful and episodic."

Rygg, Elisabeth (17.01.08). Review titled Springende satire fra Gokk* (Leaping satire from Gokk). Aftenposten, aftenposten.no, 12.11.2010, http://oslopuls.aftenposten.no/?service=redirect&sourceid=2200755

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