It’s been an eventful summer for the company. The spring started out in uncertainty for us, like everybody else. Sólveig was nearing premiere of We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse in New York and Anna was about to leave Finland to join Bergdís and Tinna for rehearsals of Them in Iceland. Both productions were set to participate live at the Reykjavík Fringe Festival. Then a little something happened that blew all our plans out the window.
Them featuring Anna Korolainen Crevier, Bergdís Júlía Jóhannsdóttir and Tinna Þorvalds Önnudóttir.
Left with the choice to cancel everything or find another way through, we decided on the latter, and wound up adapting our two stage performances into video pieces. It was a challenging undertaking for the artists with a tight deadline but nonetheless an exciting opportunity to discover new ways of playing with the material.
These new discoveries lead the company towards a new direction, one we are sure to embrace for future productions. The transience of theatre is beautiful and its effect so immediate, but the permanence of this filmic devising process allows a further reach and different levels of intimacy. For theatre makers, it feels like a huge privilege not to be tied to a given location, but able to work across borders, reaching an international audience.
We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse - featuring Léerin Campbell and Chris Nester.
Both pieces were well received and Them received The Nordic Network Fringe Award - which we are extremely proud of. It grants us access to all the Nordic Fringe Festivals next year.
In addition to our group performances, two members of the company had solo exhibitions. Sólveig showcased pages from her comic Space Mama Piggy which was published this month and is now showing at Stockholm Fringe Festival 15-19th September, and Tinna showed her watercolour paintings from her series Yes, Please.
Space Mama Piggy by Sólveig Eva.
With her superhuman strength and generosity of spirit Tinna received the award Spirit of the Fringe at the festival - proud, proud, proud we are!
We sincerely thank the wonderful producers of the Reykjavík Fringe for going ahead with the festival, safely through virtual acts and following health and safety protocols with local live performances. We are in awe of their management skills in these strange and difficult times. All that said we consider ourselves very lucky that we and our family were in good health during all this time, and we sincerely hope you, our reader, have been safe and supported during this pandemic.
Yes Please by Tinna Þorvalds Önnudóttir
We look forward to next year for more fringes, more creativity and opportunities.
- Anna Korolainen Crevier, Bergdís Júlía Jóhannsdóttir, Sólveig Eva and Tinna Þorvalds Önnudóttir.