Visions of Kerouac
Grusomhetens Teater presents the world premiere of “Visions of Kerouac”, a movement-theater concept-album, conceived & directed by Brendan McCall. Each performance features a different guest artist from music, dance, or theater. “Visions of Kerouac” is the first time someone other than artistic director Lars Øyno
has directed the company.
WHERE AND WHEN:
Thurs-Sun, 25-28 May
& Tues-Sun 30 May – 4 June 2017
Grusomhetens Teater – Hausmania, Hausmannsgate 34, Oslo
Produced by Brendan McCall in association with Grusomhetens Teater
All performances at 19.00*
*except Friday, 2 June at 00.00 (midnight) + Saturday, 3 June at 13.00 (matinee)
200 NOK (150 NOK for students, seniors).
Reservations: brendan@grusomhetensteater.no
Company website: www.grusomhetensteater.no
Running time: 75 minutes. In English
Critics are welcome to all performances. Because the production also features original music, both theater and music critics are invited.
OSLO, 8 May — This year, Grusomhetens Teater (“The Theater of Cruelty”) celebrates 25 years of activity. Most recently, the company premiered its latest production, “I is another” – Rimbaud in Africa, written & directed by the company´s founder and artistic director Lars Øyno, on 26 January 2017.
Visions of Kerouac, described as a “movement-theater concept-album”, is Conceived & Directed by Brendan McCall, who has been the Producer for Grusomhetens Teater since 2014. Produced by Brendan McCall in association with Grusomhetens Teater, this is the first time in the group´s 25 year history that someone besides founder & artistic leader Lars Øyno is directing.
Adapted from the writings of the King of the Beat Generation, American writer Jack Kerouac (1922-69), this highly physical and musical performance highlights themes prevalent throughout his novels and poetry which continue to resonate today: anti-consumerism, the existential quest for meaning, and the celebration of vernacular idioms through art (or making everyday experiences creative). Just as Kerouac sought to translate jazz music into a new form of
writing (“spontaneous prose”), Visions of Kerouac aims to merge various improvisational structures into the performance-experience. The actors speak, sing, and play both musical instruments and found objects, as well as move through set and “open” structures of improvisation. In addition to composing original music and voice-coaching, Music Director Kristin Norderval also various technological sources for the soundscape in
Visions of Kerouac– digital, reel-to- reel tape, vinyl, acoustic, and electric.
Visions of Kerouac is performed by veteran Grusomhetens Teater members Hanne Dieserud, Live Marianne Noven, Per Bogstad Gulliksen, and Filip Amundsen Stav, and introduces Dushinka Andresen. Costumes by Cheyann Benedict, Lighting by Jan Skomakerstuen, and Publicity by Claudia Lucacel.
Finally, 10 different guest artists will perform a short “show-within- the-show” for each of Visions of Kerouac´s 10 performances at Grusomhetens Teater´s newly renovated space at Hausmania.
Just as Kerouac´s The Dharma Bums depicts a reading of “Howl” inside the novel, Visions of Kerouac features a variety of Norwegian artists across disciplines doing their own version of this quintessential Beat poem by Allen Ginsberg. No two performances will ever be identical. Our guest artists are Henriette Blakstad (theater), Øystein Elle (music), Brendan McCall (spoken word), Karen Mikalsen (contemporary dance), Kristin Norderval (music), Rolf-Erik Nystrøm (music), Ørnulv Snortheim (music), Arild Stav (music), Espen Wensaas (music), and Lars Øyno (theater).
For further information, please contact:
Brendan McCall
brendan.mccall.norway@gmail.com
983 01 413
See the poster here
ABOUT GRUSOMHETENS TEATER
An independent physical theater group founded by Lars Øyno in 1992, Grusomhetens Teater is inspired by the writings of the French poet Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), who sought to create an “anatomical theater” whose performances would be metaphysical in nature. To date, the company has presented 26 evening-length productions, including two world-premieres by Henrik Ibsen:Fjeldfuglen, a staging of his unfinished 1859 opera libretto; and Svanhild, a prose text from 1860, which won the Oslo Prize for Best Performance in 2014. The group has performed throughout Norway, as well as Sweden, Germany, France, England, Poland, Russia, Turkey, India, Japan, and the US. Most recently, the company presented Fjeldfuglen at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City. Currently, the company is in collaboration with the Living Theatre (USA) to present Venus & Mars, the final manuscript by Judith Malina.