ORFEO (1995)

In this performance VERDENSTEATRET
goes out from the classical myth "Orfeus", and specially the last part
of the legend, where Orfeus head is washed ashore on the Island of Lesbos.
As a motive Verdensteatret have tried to grasp the sound of the head in the very moment it hits the rocks on Lesbos.

"Orfeo" is the result of a symposium between 11 artists working in Norway in different art-fields: fine arts, sound/music, theatre, dance, writers etc.
The text material is based on Heiner Müller, Thomas Bernhard, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Samuel Beckett, Finn Iunker, Ovid, Aki Kauismäki, Verdensteatret.

"Orfeo / 7 against Thebes " is a double performance and the two performances is made very differently, but is ment to be in dialogue with each other.

In "Orfeo" Verdensteatret decided to gather different artists who has their own artistically career and their own projects.
The performance is a result of a symposium between 11 artists working in Norway in different art fields : fine arts, sound/music, directors, writers, choreographer, etc.
The material which the co-operation has generated can be seen as slag from the artistically process of each participants : Epigonal thinking, irritations and mistakes, traces of sick over - sensitivity etc.

THE SINGING HEAD
In the end the work circulated around the myth about the Trakien singer and poet Orfeus, and specially the last part of the myth, where the singing head, that no-one wants, floats singing down the river to the island Lesbos. Here it predicted the future day and night.

Verdensteatret has in this performance tried to grasp the sound of the head in the very moment it hits the rocks on Lesbos.
A snake which had bitten itself firmly to Orfeus head, was transformed into stone by the god Apollon. The members of the group has to the best of their ability tried to sense the destiny of Orfeus when the ring of stone tightens around his head and the stone-jaws stiffen in the flesh of his cheek.

The text is taken from works by Heiner Müller, Thomas Bernhard, Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Aki Kaurismäki, Finn Iunker , Ovid and Verdensteatret.

CASTING - PROBLEM
The form in the performance "ORFEO" is a result of wrong casting.
It is performed by an instructor, a choreographer and two painters.

THE THEATRE OF MY DEATH
"7 AGAINST THEBES" is on the contrary performed by actors. The performance is built on the Theben myth about "the 7 against Thebes". The Thebean king Eteocles is also a man with an aching, bad smelling stonehead. But at least it still hangs on him. On the day of the occupation the king perform the theatre of his death.

The text is a fusion between Aiskylos
"The 7 Against Thebe" and Heiner Müllers
"Landscape with Argonauts".
Aiskylos drama describe a city in moral dissolution as the enemy besieger the city and stands outside the seven gates of Thebe, and further the blood - stained logic of the civil war.

"Landscape with Argonauts" is the last part of Müllers play "Lost coast Medamaterial Landscape with Argonauts" and describe the western civilisation - process as a conquest.

ORFEUS
Famous poet and musician. Born in Trakien. Dead in Makedonia.
Was given his lyre from Apollon. His songs tamed wild animals,
the rivers stopped running, trees and stones followed him. Married to Euridice. When Euridice died, Hades was so moved by Orfeus songs
that he allowed him to descend into the underworld to bring her back again. But on one condition: He must not look back before they reach the light of day.

When Orfeus saw the light in the distance he turned around and lost Euridice forever. He was later torn apart by raving bacchantins. His head with his tongue was thrown in the river Hebrus, where it floated singing to the island of Lesbos. The head was attacked by a snake but Apollon stopped it by turning it into stone. The head was then kept in a Dionysian cave near Antissa on Lesbos. Here it predicted the future day and night until Apollon, who had seen that his oracles in Delphi and other places had began to lose their popularity, stood complaining in front of it and said: "Would you be so kind not to interfere in my business.

I have listened to you and your singing enough". The head then became silent. Orfeus´ lyre was later put in the sky as a star constellation. The remains of his body were buried by the foot of the mountain Olympus where the nightingales now sing more beautifully than any other place in the world.

Participants :

Duration : 1. 40 min with 10 min. break.

THE PERFORMANCE IS SUPPORTED BY:
THE NORWEGIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND ULSTEIN INDUSTRIER AS

VERDENSTEATRET IS SUPPORTED BY:
THE NORWEGIAN CULTURAL COUNCIL.