New International Encounter

Tales from the River Thames

2012-01-18T17:26:00.004Z

This week we started working at the Unicorn Theatre on our site specific project taking place this June. Using the stories that were created through workshops in Primary Schools over the autumn, we have been seeing how these can be turned into mini performances with the help of Unai, Carly and Kieran as well as Cath and Jenny from The Unicorn, Tina our set designer, Ella and David.

Dog sledding in the far far north

2012-01-14T22:51:00.001Z

We went out of town close the coal mine and met up with Sebastian from the Green Dog Sled company and kitted up in huge snow suits for a morning of dog sledding.

We were very warm in the hut but it was very cold outside.

Liz really loved the dogs and led the way with helping to get them ready for our trip. we had two sleds one with ten dogs and one with eight.

It was hard to take an pictures out on the snow because it was so dark, even though we were put at 11am in the morning. Here is the best of them.

Martin was driving me on the way out into the valley. I was in charge on the way back.

It was a fantastic experience and had a huge impact on us. We were far far away from any signs of human life. After the initial symphony of barking and howling at the start it was almost silent and very beautiful. (this is not so clear in the pictures so you have to take my work for it)

I was very keen to look for the Northern Lights, so keen that I nearly fell of the sled and had hang on with one hand and apply the breaks. I think the dogs knew I was an amateur.

At the end we felt like real arctic explorers. It was a really great way to travel up here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vei 224,Longyearbyen,Svalbard and Jan Mayen

It snowed a lot and we made a small snowman after rehearsals

2012-01-14T22:24:00.001Z

It was out last day of rehearsals today, so we had a snowball fight after work and made a snowman.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vei 224,Longyearbyen,Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Midday Darkness

2012-01-12T18:50:00.001Z

We went down to the fjord to see if getting away from the lights of Longyearbyn might help is to see the Northern Lights better. But it was cloudy. So we posed as polar explorers instead.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vei 224,Longyearbyen,Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Wednesday in the far far north

2012-01-11T18:19:00.001Z

We spent the day at Longyearbyn Kultur Hus working together. We spent a lot of time talking and reading about S A Andree's doomed attempt to reach the north pole in 1897 in a balloon. This has become a bit of an obsession. We tracked his full journey, three days by balloon and then many many weeks over the ice.

We also spent some time looking at Strindberg's pictures from the expedition which he took with a special camera of his own design. The undeveloped negatives survived the crash, the torturous trek over the ice and 30 years frozen on a small island close to Svalbard.

At midday we went outside to see if the sun had come up.

It had not. We will head out after dinner to see if we can spot the Northern Lights again. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vei 222,Longyearbyen,Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Tuesday night in Svalbard - the northern lights.

2012-01-10T22:18:00.001Z

We went out for a walk in the town of Longyearbyen and in the very clear sky we could see the northern lights. Martin and Elke tried to take pictures. This is about the best of them. The moon was very bright so it was not as easy to see the northern lights as on a moonless night. But at least the sky was clear.

I saw a bear asleep at its desk in the Spitzbergen Travel office. Liz came back wi rosy cheeks......

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vei 224,Longyearbyen,Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Made it to the far north.

2012-01-10T14:34:00.001Z

We arrived at longyearbyen airport and were greeted by this stuffed polar bear.

We have made it to Svalbard and checked into our small apartment.

We went to the culture house and compared our boots.

It is 15:31 here and as dark as night. Tomorrow we start work. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Svalbard

Made it to Tromso

2012-01-10T13:52:00.001Z

We have made it as far as Tromso. You have to get off the plane here and then go through passport control and get back on again the same plane.

I bought a sandwich. Liz said she had a packed lunch. "polar bread" and brown cheese.

Marin liked the snow blowing on the runway.

On our way to Svalbard now.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Back North

2012-01-09T16:34:00.001Z

On my way back to Svalbard for the first full development week on our north pole project North North North. Oddly this massive journey starts with the 490 bus to Terminal 5.

I have a bag full of jumpers and thermals. Alex Byrne. Artistic Director. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Staines Rd,,United Kingdom

"Ten Best Theatre" in The Independent: Hansel & Gretel

2011-12-31T12:31:00.003Z

It was great to see Hansel & Gretel listed in The Independent as one of the "Ten Best Theatre" shows today.

Wishing everyone a very happy new year, and we look forward to celebrating the start of 2012 with the final four shows on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 January in Cambridge!

If you are elsewhere in Europe though, there is still plenty of time to catch our co-production with Kopergietery in Ghent. Twist is playing at the venue throughout January, and you can then catch it on tour - click here for more details!

Four star review from The Guardian for Hansel & Gretel

2011-12-29T20:22:00.002Z

“A folksy affair, done with just the right touch of nastiness and warm-hearted playfulness… much to enjoy for all members of the family”★★★★ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

We have had a brilliant time making and playing Hansel & Gretel to thousands of school children and families throughout the run so far at The Junction, Cambridge.

On a bumper show day of 3 shows to packed audiences, Director of Hansel & Gretel, Alex Byrne reflects on the experience:

We have been thrilled at the amount of newspaper coverage for the show, and really chuffed at a four star review in The Guardian for Hansel & Gretel:

For the full review, please click here

Opening night & the first set of reviews are in for Hansel & Gretel!!

2011-12-10T15:00:00.001Z

Yesterday marked another big milestone for us – opening night for Hansel and Gretel in Cambridge. Setting the stage, the theatre foyer was transformed into a winter wonderland complete with fake snow, pine cones and real gingerbread (this is Hansel and Gretel after all!) meanwhile the scent of mulled wine filled the air teasing guests, press and audience goers who had assembled for the show ...

This morning we woke to the first set of reviews for the show. Here are some of our favourite quotes...

“With its European folk songs, physical inventiveness and clever use of puppetry... this is far from being a traditional panto”
Andrew Aldridge, The Stage

“This is one magical journey worth making in all weathers and will warm the heart on even the coldest December night”
Glen Pearce, ***** Public Reviews

"A deeply funny fairytale, tinged with pathos... the perfect embodiment of less is more"
Eleanor Turney, A Younger Theatre.

“A magical show which ventures deep into the traditions of storytelling, Hansel and Gretel is a delight for all ages and an intelligent alternative to the gaudy glitz which can often obscure the humble wonders of Christmas”
Jennifer Shelton, Cambridge News

Guardian theatre tips - Hansel & Gretel

2011-12-03T00:04:00.002Z

We were really pleased to be mention in Lyn Gardner's tips for The Guardian on shows to see in the week coming up, and an image from the show for Hansel & Gretel:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage

Can't wait until we open on Wednesday 7th in Cambridge!

Final rehearsals for Hansel & Gretel (UK)

2011-12-03T00:03:00.000Z

We did a run through of the show today - its shaping up to be a great show, but still needs a bit of editing to make it around 60 minutes running time. A few shots below from the run through:

Hansel & Gretel with their Father (and Stepmother)

Hansel collecting pebbles to find their way home

Explaining the plan to Gretel....

Finding their way back home

In the Witch's House

Hansel being fattened up to be eaten!

Twist/Guttens hemmeligheter in Gent

2011-11-22T22:16:00.010Z

What have we been up too in Gent lately:

Dagfinn has tried out how to start the day inside a carpet. It might look like that he will be there when the performance open.

Lenka and Helder in music rehersals:

Katja have been playing a lot with cardboard:

And so have the actors:

And how to open a letter without no one noticing:
And trying out costumes:

Cutting hair:

Participating in nice receptions:

And playing with pyroeffects:

In a few days we will move out of the rehearsal space and into the theatre. Check back for more posts very soon.

Posted by Kjell Moberg. Co - Artistic Director NIE

A gingerbread house

2011-11-01T08:49:00.001Z

This is the model of our gingerbread house. Any ideas about how we can make smoke come out of the chimney??

Rehearsals start next week in Cambridge.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

More Hansel and Gretel Blog

2011-10-19T15:55:00.001+01:00

There is a special blog for Hansel and Gretel - you can see more here:

H and G Blog

Design meeting for Hansel & Gretel

2011-10-19T14:53:00.002+01:00

Today we had a design meeting with Steffi who is designing the set and costumes for the show.

We also had a look at the next version of the puppets of Hansel and Gretel that we will be using for some parts of the show and I think they look really good.

Steffi had made a small set model working on our ideas about trees and branches in a forest. We also talked about some ways of using projections as part of the set.

Things are really moving on now, we also talked a lot about costumes and how the design will be used to tell the story....

More soon - the show is getting closer and closer, and tickets are selling fast!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad by Alex Byrne

Location:Cambridge

Minnenes Museum Day 1

2011-09-20T19:17:00.005+01:00

Iva, Guri, Kai Kenneth and Marie in first days of rehearsals.

The lunchroom in Dikemark. The space we are working in is the community center inside the grounds of what was former Norway biggest mental hospital. Nowadays its only the most dangerous patients left, and of course us…..

Elke and Kieran decided to go to get a table tennis table and stopped by in our house. My two kids did not want them to leave. More on table tennis in the next post.

Museum of Memories

2011-09-16T09:30:00.002+01:00

While we wait for the welders we decided with Elke and Katja to make a room in cardboard. This is half a day of work showed in 9 minutes. Next week there will be actors as well!

Hansel & Gretel: set design

2011-09-09T14:08:00.002+01:00

Alex met with Steffi today (our set designer and one of the performers in Hansel & Gretel performing this Christmas at The Junction) to talk in detail about ideas for the set design. We will transform the theatre into a forest so we are currently talking to local tree surgeons about using bits of cut-off branches in our set. Steffi has also been working on some beautiful puppets which we use in the show:

Here they are in our office at The Junction, Cambridge with a head still to be added to little Hansel!

Back in the south.

2011-09-04T21:29:00.001+01:00

After an amazing time in the north we made it back to Oslo. We used today to do some planning for the next stage of development on North North North and on some NIE future projects.

We also managed an hour of fishing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Made it back

2011-09-03T07:02:00.001+01:00

We made it back to Oslo without seeing a polar bear. The NIE van will now nurse us home.

We are headed south south south.

Alex and Kjell.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Norway

Last day in the town at the end of the world

2011-09-02T12:58:00.005+01:00

North North North

It really feels like this town is at the end of the world - it is the last stop on the plane route - you can only go back from here or head out on foot for the north pole.

This is the hut on top of the hill behind Longyearbyen

And this is part of the glacier with a huge crevasse

This kern is at the top of the hill behind Ny Byen where we stayed.

We want back to museum this morning and I got a book about the various (and mostly disastrous) balloon missions the north pole.

Our plane has landed now so off we go back to Oslo.

The Abandoned Pyramiden Mining Town

2011-09-02T07:35:00.005+01:00

On Thursday we went to the abandoned mining town called Pyramiden. It used to be a thriving Russian colony with hundreds of miners and a fully working community with a school and a clinic and all that stuff.

The Russians left in January of 1998, they left almost everything behind including lots of personal stuff - I think there was a tight limit on the amount of stuff that they could take with them, they had only a weeks notice of the decision to move them out. They left all of the mining gear and the buildings have been empty since then. Our guide Victor told us that many buildings were now locked up because too many people had taken souvenirs away with them.
We got there in a small Arctic Circle boat that Victor drove, that meant back into full exposure suits and a very cold and windy hour out on the Fjord.
The mine is a beautiful location with a view of a huge glacier just across the water but the mine itself must have been big, ugly, noisy complex when it was working, now it looks a bit forlorn.
You can see here it was quite a big complex - with its own farm for pigs and chickens and cows, a school and a swimming pool, there are still a few people staying there to look after visitors and they run a small bar....
The walk into town from the old dock took about 5 minutes.

Victor told us that this was a dangerous place because bears could sometimes be in between the buildings or around the mine and you could not see them coming in the same way that you can in open country. He carried his gun all the time. We did not see a bear, just lots of seagulls who seemed to have taken over some of the buildings.
The mine was once the pride of the Soviet system and a very popular place to work because the pay was good and the people were well looked after.

In the main square there was a children's area next to the school and an area of grass that had been shipped in from Siberia and planted here - this grass does not normally grow here (at least thats what Victor told us)
The square had a number of monuments with a kind of arctic, communist feel.

And was overlooked at the top by this bust of Lenin - looking out to the east over his Polar domain.
The sports hall was huge and impressive given the size of the community and also housed a big cultural / performance space as well.
There was also an impressive swimming pool.
Some of the buildings still had lost of stuff left inside, these are pictures of the some of the mine staff, there we also shift books and all sorts of papers in this machine room.
My favourite were the safety posters in the access walkway, some had been stolen but there were still lots left - maybe some one out there can translate this one for me?

We made it back to Longyearbyen by about 4pm. The way back was much harder in the small boat as the weather was getting worse and the wind made the weaves much bigger. Winter is coming very soon to Svalbard. Victor told us to come back in March or April to see the frozen sea and the snow.

Barentzberg - the Russian Colony

2011-09-01T07:17:00.004+01:00

Today we went to Barentzberg - the Russian mining town about one and a half hours by boat from Longyearbyen.

It is a working mine town and everyone who works there is employed by the mine company -even the girls working in the hotel bar. The people working here get all the meals and other needsprovided by the company, so it is a small society without any cash because there is nothing to buy.

It has a proper old soviet feel - like going back to the 1980's in the middle of Russia. The people that we met were really nice to us although most of them seemed to be down the mine. We did not get time to see the most northerly pig farm in the world but we did see lots of other stuff.

This is the school - which is painted to look like Noah's ark

This is a painting of a forest to remind the workers what a forest looks like.

This is a sculpture about the future, in front of one of the mine administration buildings.

Kjell and Alex

At the top of the mountain

2011-09-01T06:30:00.008+01:00

The view from the top was really worth the climb - we could see for miles and miles.

We stopped my this small hut at the top which had been used as a monitoring station - as everything older than 1949 is classed a cultural heritage and protected we were told not to take anything. The hut was locked but I suspected that there was a Starbucks inside that Inge didn't want to tell us about.

We also saw some Arctic Grouse at the top - they were not scared of us even though Maud the dog was very interested in them...

On the way down we saw some goose hunters going up the plateaux for an evening of hunting.

They took this picture of us near the bottom the first climb.

More Longyearbyen mountain

2011-08-31T20:14:00.002+01:00

We climbed up above the cloud layer and in the end even found some sunshine (even though it was snowing at the same time)

At the top we could see right across the glacier and see many of the mountains of Spitzbergen. Because people have not been here for very long not all of the peeks have names.

The terrain is very rugged and difficult at times - we walked next to the glacier and right up to the top.

They way up was quite hard, it took 3 and half hours - on the way back it was only 2 and half.

We made it down quite fast and saw lots of wild life on the way - but no Polar Bears.

Up the Mountain

2011-08-31T19:01:00.003+01:00

Today we climbed the mountain above Longyearbyen, next to the glacier and up to the very top. We wanted to see the view of the fjord and mountains beyond..... even though it was cloudy we hoped for the best.

we went with Inga our guide who took her dog called Maud (a boy), it was a Greenland dog, she also took some chocolate and coffee and large revolver in case of Polar Bears

We passed the old coal mine entrance which was full of ice from the permafrost

and headed up into the hills - there are no trees or bushes here only rock, and stones, and boulders, and mud and ice. There are also big mountains over 1000 meters tall.

Boat trip to the glacier

2011-08-29T22:46:00.003+01:00

We went on a boat trip out into the very cold Fjord to see the glacier which is busy falling into the sea....

We took a gun on the boat in case of polar bears - we were going to the place where a bear killed a young guy last month...

we did not see a bear but we did see a puffin. And some seals....

and the Glacier which was amazing:

Into longyearbyen

2011-08-29T19:19:00.003+01:00

We walked the two kilometres from the new town into the centre and found a cafe with pretty good espresso.

We also spent a few moments in the shopping centre. Kjell took a shine to this outfit.

The weather is fine. About 3 / 4 degrees and cloudy. No rain. We will try to get out on a boat this afternoon.

Alex and Kjell.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday afternoon

2011-08-29T19:19:00.001+01:00

We have been out in town today to the museum and to the supermarket. I bought some wine at quite in Norwegian tax free prices.

We also visited the snow mobile park and tool a tour of new cultural house

The Theatre seats about 230 people and shows films and other stuff too

This afternoon we will go out on fjord in a boat and visit a glacier. Pictures to follow.

Alex

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oslo Airport - the first hop north

2011-08-28T17:04:00.004+01:00

Well I made it to Oslo at least. The airport here is very busy for a Sunday afternoon - I guess its the end of the holidays here. My flight leaves at 20.50 and arrives close to midnight in Svalbard, but it will still be light there I think. I hope that SAS don't loose my bag, otherwise I will be cold and look Dumb Dumb Dumb.

The point of no return

2011-08-28T11:36:00.001+01:00

Maybe when you get to Hatton Cross that is the point on no return.

At least you know you have to go somewhere.

Alex.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Edward Rd,Hounslow,United Kingdom

North North North

2011-08-28T11:23:00.001+01:00

This Sunday morning is the start of our journey north to Svalbard, a Norwegian island in the far, far north. It is inside the arctic circle. It is the most northern inhabited outpost of Europe. It is North North North.

Rather mundanely my journey starts with the 490 London bus from Twickenham to Heathrow. I will meet Kjell in Olso and then fly on to the North. I will try to blog as much as I can so check back here for some slightly more exciting pictures I hope.

My bag is full of winter clothes.

My stomach is full of butterflies.

It feels like the start of a proper adventure.

The bus voice counts me down to the point of now return.

"Hounslow Airparks Leisure Centre"

"Feltham High Steet"

"490 to Heathrow Terminal Five"

Alex.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hansel and Gretel in London

2011-08-15T12:21:00.003+01:00

We had a workshop this week in London with Alex, Carly Davis and a bunch of great performers at St Mary's University College London. We have four confirmed cast members for Hansel and Gretel (the family Christmas show at The Junction, Cambridge this year), but are looking to find a fifth performer.We explored some of the songs from the show and played some improvisation games together.

space for a show (part 3): historic gem

2011-08-01T18:41:00.004+01:00

Then we went by Thames Clipper up to the Royal Naval College and saw some beautiful spaces in Greenwich, whilst Squeeze soundchecked for the gig there that night:

by Cat Moore

space for a show (part2):across the water

2011-08-01T18:39:00.003+01:00

We then went by ex-police boat from the Dome across to Trinity Buoy Wharf where we heard Soho Theatre members rehearsing for their new opera, and then we went up the only lighthouse in London:

Space for a show (part1): underground London

2011-08-01T18:24:00.005+01:00

Alex and I spent Friday travelling up and down the River Thames in London looking for an exciting space to perform Tales from the River Thames - our participatory performance project with The Unicorn theatre in 2012.

We went under the railway tracks looking at the atmospheric (and damp) Old Vic Tunnels,the damp smell reminded us of the Underbelly in Edinburgh:

Say cheese!

2011-07-21T13:04:00.001+01:00

Last week we had a great time in the UK doing a photoshoot in Cambridge with two actors from the Christmas show we are co-producing with The Junction theatre.

We borrowed loads of different costumes from Classworks Theatre Hire, and Rew and Steffi (who is also the set designer for the show) spent a morning dressing up and playing about with them to get different shots to promote the show.

Photographer: Christa Holka

Pim and Theo in London

2011-06-18T20:36:00.001+01:00

The last few days we have been working on the early development of a new project about the very different but linked lives of two Dutch political figures who were both killed by extremists. Pim Fortyne was a right wing politician and Theo Van Goch was a satirist as film maker.

We have been trying to work out who they are and what we think about them.

They were both murdered in public and their deaths caused huge shock and outage in Holland. The show will be about the shape and nature of tolerance in our societies at the moment. Which feels very serious but also very vital and exciting.

Alex Byrne.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pym and Theo first days

2011-06-02T21:53:00.001+01:00

Over the last five days I have been working at Odsherred Theatre with Simon, Henrik and Mei on the very first steps of a new project about the very different and oddly linked lives of Pym Fortune and Theo Van Gogh. It's been a crazy time talking about politics, racism and murder.

The Odsherred Theatre is based in the former mental hospital in Sealand.

Next week we will be continuing this exploration in London. I will try to put some pictures from rehearsals up next week.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ASSITEJ international Award

2011-06-01T18:33:00.001+01:00

I am very pleased to announce here that last friday we won the ASSITEJ International Honorary Presidents Award at the ASSITEJ World Congress. This is a major award of international standing and is only given every three years. The award was shared with Grouppe 38 from Denmark. There was a short ceremony at which Dave, Liz, Iva and Kjell gave a great performance of some music.

ASSITEJ 2011

2011-05-25T00:37:00.001+01:00

The workshop is over. We had the last session today. It's was so very nice to work with such a diverse group and see some onstage meetings between artists from Sweden and Korea, Brazil and Russia.

I have put a few pictures here of some of the exercises from the last session. We were dressing up and telling stories.

Best. Alex.

Location:Kalendegatan,Malmö,Sweden

Copenhagen workshop at the ASSITEJ world congress

2011-05-24T13:58:00.001+01:00

It's the second day of the workshop here and some of the participants who were a bit jet lagged yesterday were really on top form today. We had some fun with the chairs and the tamborines. Fernando from Florida was a gracious (and cheeky) winner. Very kindly Carolina from Brazil tool a few pictures: here are some for the blog.

Fernado wins the game

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ASSITEJ world congress

2011-05-22T21:37:00.001+01:00

Just arrived in Copenhagen for the ASSITEJ world congress. I am doing a workshop and we are playing the great Berlin 61 show as part of the official programme here.

I was very pleased to get the new ASSITEJ magazine in my congress bag and see us on the front cover...

Fame at last.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gammel Kongevej,Copenhagen,Denmark

Our shop has changed...

2011-05-19T12:16:00.001+01:00

We are in Peterborough today for some meetings and planning and stopped in at the Queensgate centre to see the location of our show Tales from the Middle of Town (It seems like so long ago that we did that show). The shop is of course still there but the inside has changed a lot. There is, for example, no longer a large forest upstairs and Sven and Guri were nowhere to be seen.

It is no longer Sven and Guri's emporium of stories, now it's called Magenta and sells kids clothes. I think I liked it more before. But at least we are up here in Peterborough planning a new show. Maybe Sven and Moody Man will make a come back.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Peterborough

On my way to Copenhagen

2011-05-16T18:48:00.001+01:00

Well this is a test of a mobile blogging tool that I am trying out. It seems like a nice idea to be able to blog from pretty much anywhere without needing to open up my computer... But does it work??

This is my Heathrow coffee plus a healthy looking granola type bar...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Heathrow Airport T5

Sea Journey touring

2011-05-12T15:59:00.000+01:00

Listen!

The tour started with the Mayfest Robot Disco at Bristol Old Vic where Liz and Kieran really got into the spirit of the event...

We managed a run through at the Tobacco Factory which must be our favorite UK venue (well maybe in the top 3...)

At the Pleasance London I saw lots of old friends who know us from Edinburgh and it was great to see Anthony and the Pleasance gang still going strong and hard at work in non-Edinburgh mode. It is a lovely space that they have up there in Islington - I am heading back there soon for some development work on a new show called Pim and Theo - more on that later....

At the Pleasance Captain Mathiasen's sand stuck to the floor a bit and Elke went to work with mop to sort it out (extra points to her for that)

We are off the Oslo for shows this weekend in Dramatikens Hus - its the second part fo the NIE 10 Years Festival so look out for us there - 10 years is a long time - if it hadn't been so much fun I would say I feel old but as Kjell says - "its not the years, its the kilometers" what do you think he means?

We've gone audio crazy - more about Mayfest

2011-05-05T14:43:00.001+01:00

On our way to Bristol (by van and train not via the Atlantic)

Listen!

Our first audio boo post (its digital you know)

2011-05-05T12:56:00.000+01:00

Listen!

A bit of video about Sea Journey on Tour....

2011-05-04T15:42:00.002+01:00

Tom and I have been messing around with a bit of video recording to tell you about the Sea Journey tour to Bristols Mayfest....

Some Hansel and Gretel Audio

2011-04-26T16:05:00.004+01:00

This is some audio recorded at BAC as part of our Hansel and Gretel scratch work...

Listen!

Hansel and Gretel - sharing work at BAC

2011-04-26T10:28:00.005+01:00

After 5 days of work at BAC and a greta time with a big variety of people we shared some of our work and ideas on the Thursday evening - and had a great time doing it.

We also got some of it on video - see below....

It's only a short bit of the scratch after 5 days of work but at least it gives you some of the flavour.

More Hansel and more Gretel...

2011-04-20T20:22:00.002+01:00

Back into BAC today for more Hansel and Gretel madness. We have been working on lots of music using some simple tunes and motifs for the show. We have also been writing some lyrics which is really entertaining and a new thing for me. I keep thinking about the age range for the show and if the story is too scary – terrible things happen in the story – famine and cannibalism and death. We have been trying to have fun with these and keep then playful, to make sure that we explore them in a playful and questioning way.

We worked on the story and how to tell it trying to find out what we thought was important in the story.

Some lyrics for the story

Birds came down out of the trees and the bushes

And they ate up all of the crumbs

(that Hansel had dropped)

And when they woke from their sleep

They were lost in the forest

The way home had been devoured

(by the birds from the first verse)

Unai’s hungry Witch was very funny and scary as was his description of her hideous appearance…

Starting new work at BAC

2011-04-13T20:22:00.003+01:00

Today was the first of a few days of development work at BAC in London. We were starting work on our new Christmas show based on Hansel and Gretel. It's a bit weirs to start working on a 'Christmas Show' in April but this is just the first workshop stage. The finished show will be on at the Junction in Cambridge in December of this year.

We have just started working on some ideas and messing around a bit. We spent a lot of time talking about the story and what it means and how nasty it is...
We also spent some time just playing around with some games and costumes. I have worked with Carly and Unai before but this is the first time that Steffi has worked for NIE - she was very very funny today.

Unai found out that the floor was not that clean.

Two Awards for NIE!

2011-04-12T12:09:00.003+01:00

On the 5th April, our show Everything Falls Apart/Kollaps won the award for Best Production in Schools Touring in Norway 2011. The prize is 100.000 NOK and the award was presented to Kjell and Iva Moberg, NIE's Associate Directors, by the Norwegian Culture Minister at a special ceremony. The prize money will be spent on educational development projects, carried out by members of NIE’s ensemble over the next few years. Everything Falls Apart/Kollaps will be presented during the NIE Festival Vol.II in Dramatikkens hus in Oslo on the 13th May 2011

And then...

On the 6th April, the Norwegian Association for Performing Arts (DTS) announced that NIE will receive the Artistic Bravery award during their Annual Assembly on the 29 April. To celebrate this, My Life with the Dogs will be presented at Oslo´s brand new theatre Det Andre Teater also on the 29th April.

2011-03-30T09:33:00.002+01:00

We are really pleased to confirm we are part of Arts Council England's new National Portfolio, securing our funding in the UK until 2015. Thank you to all our supporters.

It is a challenging time ahead, and we wait for news today from our UK friends and partners. A day spent checking twitter/ blogs and newsfeeds...

More from the UK Tour

2011-03-28T16:39:00.006+01:00

This month we have been in Cambridge, in Colchester on the lovely campus of Essex University and Oxford at the excellent North Wall Arts Centre. The weather was great and we sat outside the Junction for lunch and decided that spring had sprung. Four of the cast had come over from Scandinavia so 15 degrees and sunshine was a very pleasant surprise for them.

This is the start of the show in Cambridge - it was a full house and the foyer was very crowded. Margit and Jirka played music and Liz served Aquavit (but not the 6th form students)

We used a bit of time in Cambridge (as we were there for two days) to take some more pictures of the show - thanks Jirka (and Elke) for this one. It shows Captain Mathiasen suffering terrible visions out at sea.

We also did a bit of rehearsing and some more messing around with languages.

On Monday Margit had a splinter in her foot - luckily Jirka can fix anything.... except the financial crisis.

Thanks to everyone who came to see the show in in the UK - we had a great time and kept on working and developing the show.

From Alex Byrne - NIE's Artistic Director.

Tales from a Sea Journey/Hav: UK tour

2011-03-15T16:13:00.006Z

We have arrived in the UK for the tour of our new show Tales from a Sea Journey. We flew in from Norway, Prague and Denmark but it was Elke our Production who had the longest journey. She left her home in Berlin in the early hours of Friday morning, flew to Oslo and collected the set before catching a ferry to Copenhagen, driving across Denmark to Esbjerg (stopping en-route to have cake with Margit who is also in the show) then catching a ferry to Harwich and finally, 48 hours later, arrived in Cambridge.

Cambridge is where we kick start our tour, dropping anchor at The Junction where we have our UK base. We will have the UK premiere here and we have spent time re-rehearsing parts of the show so that it is completely understandable for an English speaking audience.

The set for this show is huge and exciting. We have enormous projections at the back of the stage as well as ladders, rope, postcards, maps, creatures from the deep and cocktails!

On Thursday 17 March we take the show to Lakeside Theatre in Colchester and on Friday 18 March we play at The Northwall Arts Centre in Oxford. A whistle-stop tour before bringing the show back to the UK for more performances later on in the year.

Mexico

2011-02-22T18:47:00.003Z

We arrived to Mexico City late at night, and and were picked up by some very nice people from the festival. There was some small confusion in the customs about the hockey and ski bags thet the set is packed in. Why do you come to mexico with winter sports equipment? But after pushing a red button we got thru.(!!??) When you push the red button a red or green light will shine - its the most random control I have ever seen.

We went up to the TV tower to get a better overview. I do not know if it helped. Mexico City has 22 million people and it’s enormous.

The venue

Every venue has got its own little altar to Santa Maria de Guadeloupe. She is supposed to look after the venue and the people working there. It looks like you still need a fire extinguisher !

Sunday was a day off so we went to in Teotihuacán. Its unbelievable that this is enormous site is man made.

Written by Kjell Moberg, Associate Director NIE

Festival Vol.I

2011-01-12T11:54:00.003Z

There we go. The last day before the start of Vol.I of the festival. Excitement!

NRK will come today and film and interview everyone involved in Hav / TSJ for broadcasting tomorrow :)

Because of a ski accident one of our actors will be unable to play some of the performances that were originally planned for 13-22 January. The NIE anniversary celebrations will for that reason be divided into Vol.I and Vol.II.

Vol.I looks like this:
13.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey - world premiere
14.1 Seminar
15.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey + VETEX opening party

16.1 My Life with The dogs
17.1 Workshop
18.1 Workshop
19.1 The Song of Lost Treasures
20.1 No program
21.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey
22.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey

Want to see any of these shows and/or attend the fantastic VETEX concert? Buy your tickets at billettservice.no:http://www.billettservice.no/search.php?tm_link=tm_homeA_header_search&language=no&keyword=nie&x=0&y=0

The performances Berlin 1961, Everything Falls Apart, My Long Journey Home, Past Half Remembered and The End of Everything Ever will be postponed until later on in 2011. We hope to update you soon with more information on when NIE Festival Vol.II will take place.

Over the salty sea

2011-01-10T20:51:00.002Z

We have been getting on with rehearsals for Tales from a Sea Journey / HAV.

The space is quite big and we have been using some big projections.

These are some of the pictures that Jirka took in rehearsals.

We have been using some of the pictures that we took on the CMA CGM Fort St Louis and projecting them on the big screen in Dramatikens Hus.

This is Liz as Ella with the shark that her grandma makes

This is Iva and Kieran trying out the start of the show, making the Atlantic gale.

And this is an early rehearsal shot of Kapitan Mathiasen in his paint boat. Will he survive and make it back to Norway?

Sea Costumes

2010-12-09T21:09:00.005Z

Margit tried on some costumes for her Elisabet Flensberg story - maybe she was influenced by the cold weather outside?

We also found out that Iva's costume was inflatable...

Snow and Cold

2010-12-09T21:03:00.003Z

It has been very cold here in Norway - last week it was -20 degrees and Elke went for the full winter look

As did I....

It was so cold that I cried and shouted with Margit when we sat in the van - our fingers hurt that much.

Rehearsals in Asker

2010-11-30T20:54:00.003Z

We are working in the old trasformer house next to Asker Station and now the weather has turned very cold, today it was -10 outside.

We have been working on the music for the show, singing and playing some great songs from the sea.

Today we worked on the story of Sandsundvar - the island that sank into the sea.

We have also been trying out some ideas for the start of the show and finding ways to tell our own story, about the journey on the CMA-CGM Fort St Louis

We experimented with some ways to get Kieran very wet and miserable.

This is Sjon (the writer from Iceland) helping Kieran to explore the experience of an Atlantic storm...

This post was created by Alex Byrne - Artistic Director of NIE.

The Deserted Island

2010-11-30T20:46:00.003Z

We picked up our work on Tales From a Sea Journey with a week of further development on a deserted island in the Oslo Fjord, it was very beautiful but very very cold...

The view was amazing and we were surrounded by water, and boats, I went to the shops in a small boat with Kienran, we bought wine and bread and milk. We also saw the Oslo to Germany car ferry.

Dafne Prize for MLWD in Kristiansand

2010-11-02T14:31:00.011Z

NIE focussed on Norway after the fantastic performances of Tales from the Middle of Town in Peterborough UK. Some of the actors went from Peterborough straight into the Østfold school tour of Everything Falls Apart. Starting with a camera crew for an item on Norwegian NRK TV, followed by a radio interview the next day. It were early mornings for everyone to get to the venues on time, but the school children very much enjoy Everything Falls Apart, because they can go around the room and explore every little set and every little detail of the show from their own point of view. Also, as you can see in the previous post, some experimental ways to relax and rest were discovered. We played in Fredrikstad, Halden and Moss before driving the van with the set to the coastal town of Kristiansand for the next series of performances. After setting up and rehearsing at Agder Theatre, it was definitely time for a walk along the Fish Market, which was closed. We did get to see the makings of the new Agder Theatre though.

The Assitej Theatre Festival for Children and Youth programmed both Everything Falls Apart (3x) and My Life with the Dogs (2x). I came in on Friday 29 October, in the middle of preparations for My Life with the Dogs. The show hadn´t been played since May 2010 in Recklinghausen Germany, and this time even two of the actors hadn´t played it for almost a year. So some rehearsals were in place. It was weird setting up, warming up, do a run thru and not play on Friday evening. All the more energy for the 2 performances on Saturday.

And it paid off: we won the Assitej Festival Dafne Prize with My Life with the Dogs! NIE won the Dafne Prize before, in 2004 for Past Half Remembered. The timing was brilliant, as this was handed out to us in the festival cafe full of dressed up young people during a Halloween party. Not a coincidence.

Alex and Kjell are off to Trondheim now, for some serious workshopping on 3 and 4 November in AvantGarden.

Written by Marlou Beulens, producer at NIE.

Tour in Østfold- Norway

2010-10-25T21:41:00.009+01:00

We are back in Norway and have been touring the region of Østfold for the last week. Winter is slowly coming and the first snow has already been here and disappeared this week. Some of the performances on the tour are played in the daytime so there have been several different strategies to cope with the early mornings over the last week.

Strategy one: More rest !

Here in a communal lie down after a communal meal.

Strategy two: Push Thru With Intensity

What seems to be the best strategy so far is a morning swim in the freezing fjord. This morning Iva, Jolita, Unai and David decided to have a proper go just close to our house, and it was so could that the ducks wouldn’t even bother to move. Air temperature: -1 Water: +4

The frozen ground:

The ducks:

Straight in there:

A man with a warm heart and cold feet:

From tomorrow after playing in Moss we head of to the Norwegian Assitej festival in Kristiansand

Tales From The Middle Of Town

2010-09-18T11:53:00.011+01:00

Behind closed doors of the shopping centre, hidden away in what used to be a busy book shop are NIE-ers hard at work...

"Be careful of your imagination, it can get you into trouble..." If this quote is true then the children who wrote the stories to fill up this show should be in very big trouble...

Rehearsals were magical as the words of the children literally transformed before our very eyes. I loved every second from start:

To finish:

But the shop opening had to be my favourite part. Not only did i get to pretend to be a shopkeeper for a while, but i also got to see gleeful children peek in through the shop door and the inquisitive look on the face of every passer by. As a born and bred citizen of Peterborough, i know how much the city is desperate for something like this to happen. And thankfully it did happen.

It was beautiful and magical.

I feel so priviledged to have worked alongside NIE on this production and to have witnessed their magic first hand. And i just hope that this show has some influence over the generations of Peterborough. I hope it encourages them to always love and cherish stories. So stories in this area will always continue to "be in progress".

Written by Lianne Harvey.

Finland- Helsinki Festival

2010-09-14T08:44:00.004+01:00

When we visited the Helsinki Stage Festival last time 4 years ago, the founder of Korjaamo Raoul Grünstein took us in to the tram museum next door and said: ” Next time around I will have made this into a great theatre space ” And so he truly did. There are still some trams left on the edge of the space.

The new space of Korijaamo is not only a good space, but also its got fantastic technical equipment and the fastest and nicest technicians in Europe so far this year.
Here is a picture of Elke and the crew. They are so superfast that my Iphone hardly managed to make a capture of them.

We were playing Everything Falls Apart on our visit to Helsinki Festival and it was the opening of the season for us. I do not know if it was because of the long holidays for some of the actors, but someone came up with a new exercise called Pac Man. Simply based on the classic computer game. It’s a great way to do something silly without spending too much energy.

We are now off to Peterborough for the final rehearsals on Tales from The Middle of Town.
Please follow our webpage for further updates.

Kjell Moberg- Associate Dircetor

Japan -Kijimuna Festa

2010-07-24T14:50:00.009+01:00

The final festival before we take a break for summer in our touring is the Kijimuna Festa on the island of Okinawa. We play Past Half Remembered from the 23rd to the 25th of July in the The Chamber of Commerce (!) in Okinawa City. Since the festival only have two venues they have converted a lot of other buildings into theatre spaces the time of the festival.The Chamber of Commerce is a made into a nice venue and I think its a good example for other cities to convert their Chamber of Commerce into a theatre for a while.

Here is Iva talking thru the final details with help of our very kind translator Misa.

Most of us flew in via Helsinki and Osaka and spend about 21 hours of travel to get here. We got some help to translate the menu before our first meal in Japan.

The festival host a lot of companies both from Europe and Asia and there has been a lot of good exchange both artistic and for network building. The head of the festival invited us all to a barbecue on the beach on the second day here and we learned to read some new and unusual signs.

We play our last performance in Okinawa tomorrow afternoon and most of us are heading back to Europe already on Monday. Our next performance is Everything Falls Apart in Korjaamo, Helsinki on the 29th and 30th of August. I will therefore wish all our readers a nice summer with a picture of the setting sun in the Pacific. And also a thanks to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo for their kind support to bring us to Japan.

Written by Kjell Moberg- Associate Director of NIE

Hradec Workshop 2010

2010-07-14T13:34:00.006+01:00

The Hradec workshop is over now and everyone has made their way back home. We had more people there than ever before and did 5 days of really great work. There were some new faces as well as the usual suspects.

Most people stayed in the fabulous Hotel Garni which I am told

has the worlds smallest towels, "towels" I hear you cry - "what western decadence."

We had good weather but not too hot as in some previous years and we ate lunch outside everyday.

We also played our shows B61 and Everything Falls Apart in the festival and these went very very well.

Some of us spent some time watching the football in the sports bar as well.... I got the England - Germany score wrong in my predictions, which was embarrassing but not fatal. I should have listened to the magic octopus...

All I can say here is bad luck Germany, who, like England, just were not quite good enough to go all the way.

The Past Half Remembered team are off to Japan soon, so good luck to them and maybe one of them will stick up some pictures of the trip???

This post was written by Alex Byrne - Artistic Director of NIE.

Table Tennis and Football in Germany

2010-06-13T20:51:00.005+01:00

We played four shows in Recklinghausen as part of the Ruhrfestspiele Festival. And we played in a tent… it was a very nice tent but was a bit hot sometimes. I had to dry clean my costume twice when Cat (our producer) told me that I was smelly. We had four really good shows with a bit of a small audience on the Thursday (but still a great show).

We were worried about the audience for the show on the Friday as we were competing with the opening of the World Cup in South Africa which was a big event in Recklinghausen but in fact it was our best show and biggest house.

On Thursday we bought Table Tennis bats for Euro 1.50 and played on the table in the school-yard where the tent was pitched. We found this 4 way table and sort of worked out how to play on it. It’s a bit like the four-square game that we often play in rehearsals. When we left I donated the bats to the tech crew who were brilliant all week (at teching not at table tennis – they might be good at that too but they would not play us – scared of my killer serve I think)

On Friday night we packed up My Life With the Dogs and headed off to watch France – Uraguai in a bar – as you know it was 0-0 and a bit boring.

Back home now but off to the Czech Republic next week for the festival in Hradec and a big workshop.

Posted by Alex Byrne - Artistic Director

A Bristol Sandwich - Lund/ Bristol/ Stamsund

2010-06-03T11:59:00.004+01:00

10 - 23 May 2010

Loyal readers of the NIE blog might notice a few new authorial voices in the mix as we share out some of the blog reporting for NIE over the next few months..

After Lund we headed to Junges Ensemble Stuttgart (JES), Germany to play both Berlin 1961 and Everything Falls Apart as part of their anniversary celebrations. These went really well and the company really enjoyed seeing and meeting performers from some of the other shows in the festival.

After a days rest, NIE headed off to the UK to play Everything Falls Apart as part of Mayfest - an annual festival of contemporary theatre in Bristol. We were performing at one of our favourite UK venues, the Tobacco Factory and those who had been there before look forward to coming back.

Volcanic Ash and airline strikes did not hamper our travel endeavours so everyone got from Germany/ Belgium/ Norway/ Czech Republic to Southville in Bristol by Thursday for the set-up and get-in of the show.

Before we arrived we weren't sure how the height of the space would affect the show and if we would need to modify some bits, but once we had carried all our stuff into the space, we found ways and a spot to make Unai's scenes on the fridge work. The industrial building lent itself to the urban feel of the show, so once we had everything prepared the show looked great. Unai, Liz and Cat headed off to Bristol Radio for a quick interview explaining the show and the company.

After the get-in on Thursday we explored Bristol a bit more and saw some other shows as part of Mayfest - the ever-brilliant Will Adamsdale in The Human Computer at Bristol Old Vic studio and the massive installed outdoor performance Electric Hotel by the waterfront. Both shows are highly recommended so if you get a chance to catch them elsewhere I would get a ticket!

We had a great couple of show days in Bristol with 2 of the shows sold out - audiences seemed to really enjoy the promenade style and the story, appreciating the new ways we make shows without losing the NIE style. By Saturday night, we were once again packing up in our newly decorated van and heading over to Norway for the Stamsund International Theatre Festival next week.
www.stamsund-internasjonale.no

Posted by Cat Moore, UK producer for NIE

Explanation

2010-05-31T18:19:00.000+01:00

I thought long and hard about this, and despite the fact that I was originally not planning to write this post, I now feel I have to.
As you may or may not have noticed, I stopped writing this blog.
The reason for this is that my insurance company have used previous posts to find ways not to cover my losses of the Malmo theft.
This means I have now been robbed twice, all as a result of doing a friend a favour. I will not stop doing friends favours, but I will stop writing this blog.

I've stopped feeling sorry for myself, but I haven't stopped being angry.
I don't feel like writing anonymously, just as much as I don't feel like closing down the comments system just because there seems to be a persistent Chinese spammer.

But for the moment I don't feel like writing publicly any more.

My colleagues will take over for a while until I've recovered everything I've lost.

Second trilogy in Lund

2010-05-10T15:58:00.000+01:00

When I arrived at the theatre at 11am on Thursday, a woman was waiting by the door. As I got out the keys (they gave me the keys to the theatre), she asked if I could put her on the waiting list.

I said the show didn't start until 1pm, but she replied she wanted to be early so she had a better chance of getting a ticket.

There was nothing I could do, so I told her the people from Bibo would be around later, and she'd have to wait until then to find out from them what her options were.

Ten minutes later, another woman appeared - same request.

The whole day passed like this. But once the first show started, the people from Bibu tried to organise it. They left a waiting list behind in between the shows, and the list got longer and longer.

We tried to get as many people in as possible, crammed some extra chairs where we found space, and filled up the steps with more audience members. But we still couldn't fit everyone in.

After My Long Journey Home, Tomas and David made lunch for everyone.

With ice cream for dessert...

After Past Half Remembered the ushers told us there had been a fight over waiting list seats.
We had a long discussion about what to do, but there was simply nothing we could do. We did get many more people in then there were seats, broke all health and safety rules and they still didn't fit.

For us it was amazing to play to such enthusiastic audiences. I'm sorry if people didn't get a seat, even more so since we won't be playing the trilogy for a while now.

So take our cue: book ahead. Book now for any of the shows you see listed in the right column. And don't say I didn't tell you so.

One trilogy down, one more to go

2010-05-06T09:00:00.000+01:00

This is where we are. Lilla Teatern Lund. We were here 4 years ago, and this is where we were invited to go to Japan. 4 years later, Japan is approaching fast and our Japanese hosts are back to see us again.
It's been a while since we played the trilogy, and everyone is in great shape.
On Tuesday we rehearsed a bit (it's been since last February since we played My Long Journey Home and The End of Everything Ever), and we unpacked everything. It seems like the only thing we've lost on our travels was the red umbrella for Past Half Remembered. My guess is that it's still in the hold of the SAS plane we took from Stockholm to Oslo.

Yesterday morning we got to the theatre at 11am and the boys set up for My Long Journey Home. There was the thrill of excitement and nerves. This is our oldest show, the one that is being performed the least at the moment (since it has been played the most of all of our shows).

Kjell and David went back to the old job of making snow.

Good old Marcella was ready to go.

Since Bob moved to Berlin, his german has become too good for the german scene...

And then some singing to warm up the voices.

It all kicked off at 1pm, with a full house waiting to take their seats.
Full is actually not the word. Over-full seems more apt. People were sitting on the stairs and I honestly think we couldn't have gotten one more person into the theatre.

Tomas was on fire, and even though I have seen these shows many times, I have to say that this performance was probably one of the best I've seen. The audience roared with laughter and gave us a standing ovation.

After the show we had a short break before the next one was up.

5pm. Past Half Remembered. Tea and vodka. And again a lot of people in the Lilla Teatern.
The others had been in to see My Long Journey Home and it seemed like they took on that energy and kept it all going. The crowd laughed and laughed.
I spoke to some people who we've met before at other festivals, and got the impression that most of our audience here has seen at least one of the shows before, and came to the trilogy to catch up with the shows they hadn't seen yet. As the trilogy is becoming a rare event, it becomes clear that a lot of people who have seen one of them, want to see the others.

After another short break we started again at 9pm. The End of Everything Ever.
The audience laughed and laughed until they cried.
I always find it interesting with the trilogy to notice the slight delay in applause with the last show. It almost feels like people don't want to break the silence.
Another standing ovation and then it was over.

We start again at 1pm today. Same schedule, same shows.

Six shows in two days. I'm pretty sure this must be a record for us.

All means of transport in one weekend

2010-04-28T11:46:00.000+01:00

So we're off again.
To say I've recovered from my new-found paranoia about parking, would be wishful thinking, but it doesn't stop me from looking forward to hitting the road again.
We have a very exciting spring ahead of us, and it all starts next week.
I will take the ferry to Oslo tomorrow, then the bus to Torp, then the plane to Stansted, train to Cambridge, bus to Bedford, taxi back to Cambridge, train to Stansted, bus to Oslo, van to Lund.
Lund is very close to Malmö. Maybe I find my stolen goods.
When I was driving to Trelleborg last week (as a replacement service for my ash-covered flight), I scanned all passing cars for a bright orange suitcase. I know, that's ridiculous, but hope dies last.

Anyway:
here's what we have lined up in the spring.
LUND - we will play the trilogy twice. I've been told the shows are already very full, so hurry up and get your tickets as the trilogy is becoming a rare event now that we have newer shows waiting to be played.
STUTTGART - our friends at JES are organising a great festival called Schöne Aussicht, where we will play two shows: Berlin 1961 and Everything Falls Apart. Again, get your tickets soon, because one of those shows has a very limited capacity.
BRISTOL - Bristol is hosting a Bristol-wide festival called Mayfest, where we can be found in the Tobacco Factory. 4 shows in 2 days. Limited capacity. Book now, UK friends.
STAMSUND - north north north, and I will be going there with the van from Bristol. It will be a magnificent journey, and I'll tell you all about it when we reach that point. Follow us north to the midsummer sun. We only play once, and there is only space for 80 people, so again: get your tickets now.
RECKLINGHAUSEN - back to the tent with the remote control roof, this time with My Life With the Dogs. Last time we were there it was very sunny and lovely, so all the more reasons to visit the Ruhrfestspiele.
HRADEC KRALOVE - two shows again: Berlin 1961 - in English for the first time, and Everything Falls Apart.

After that we take a short break and then we're off to Okinawa.
As you can see, wherever you are, we will travel towards you. And if we don't reach your hometown, maybe you can travel a little bit towards us to?

Daylight robbery / Grand Theft Auto

2010-03-27T19:51:00.001Z

How I wish the final post of this rehearsal period could have been a joyful one, but alas, today has been a hideous day.

After we dropped everyone at Copenhagen airport, Liz and I headed off towards Oslo. We decided to stop in Malmø for lunch as we had a long drive ahead of us.
Drove around the main square/parking space in the old town three times before a space became available, found enough Swedish crowns to pay for half an hour of parking and headed to a Swedish fast food place. Came back half an hour later to find the van empty. (****)

There is no embellished version of this:
some fuckwits got into our car, stole three accordions, two suitcases, two bags with laptops, cameras etc, a projector, an espressomachine and a binbag full of white secondhand termal underwear.
The only things they left were a guitar, Kieran's glasses and Liz's plastic bag with three Kinder surprise eggs and some secondhand liquor glasses.

In broad daylight (between 12.30 and 1pm) on a very busy carpark in the middle of the most touristy area of Malmø.

SO:

IF ANYONE IN MALMØ OR SURROUNDINGS TRIES TO SELL YOU AN ACCORDION, A MAC, A CAMERA OR A SLIDE PROJECTOR, LET US KNOW!

And of course the things that are of no use to anyone else, feel like the biggest loss at the moment (notebooks, the earrings Elisabet got from her grandmother, the keyring Sasha gave me,... the list is endless). All of those things, probably still inside our suitcases, will most probably end up by the side of the road somewhere. My suitcase is made of orange tarpaulin, it should be easy to spot.

(**** - imagine all the swearwords I can think of in any language I can think of)

Danish birthday

2010-03-25T18:09:00.000Z

Today we played the story of the flotilla of rubber ducks that went around the world...

The story of the Icelandic family who were on a boat that couldn't stop...

And the story of captain Ivarssen...

Kjell bought a great new jacket in the local secondhand shop.

After lunch, when the announcements were made, it was someone's birthday and everyone sang a Danish birthday song, which was very interactive and much longer than any birthday song I know.
It ended with clapping our thighs, then clapping our neighbour's thighs, followed by banging the table. Then everyone headed over to the birthday girl whilst blowing into the palm of their hand.
It was quite an event, so I decided that I would like to be in Denmark on my next birthday.

The headmaster also announced that as the students had all been doing some great work, they'd be treated to the first ice cream of the year. We were invited to take part.

Since they opened their show on Sunday, lunch and dinner times have shifted. We now have lunch at 2pm and dinner at 5pm, and today we had ice cream in between. A lot of eating.

Still, we had some time left to work with some new text Sjon had written for us.

Tomorrow is our last day here, so we invited the students to come and see our work in progress. In the evening we'll head over to Haderslev to see Margit in The Three Sisters.

Blackboard presentations

2010-03-24T17:44:00.000Z

Today we tried to use the blackboard to tell some of the stories we heard on the boat.

This is a chart of the stories we have filtered out and how they could be used in a sequence.

Alex told his story outside, lest we forget spring is in the air...

In the afternoon we played around with some of the text Sjon wrote for us.

After work we went to the pub. It was one of the few days Margits was with us in the evenings (she is performing The Three Sisters at the moment), so we headed for our local (the only pub in Toftlund) and had the local beer.

Liz and Marie armwrestled each other.

Marie won righthanded, and is telling me she'll accept challenges from anyone who would like to try her strength.

Powerpoint injury

2010-03-23T17:12:00.016Z

We all made presentations of our journey with the pictures we took on the boat.

Some people used powerpoint, some used iPhoto slideshows, and some made an iMovie film.

Elisabet worked on her presentation for hours and hours, until very late at night, and in the morning she woke up with a trapped nerved.

Damaged by Powerpoint.

Kieran talked about his secret agent parents and his career at MI12.

One of the stories Kjell told on the boat was the story of the Norwegian fisher girl Ella Mathisen. It is a heartbreaking and devastating story, and we tried to find a way to tell it.

We also played some of our old favourite games.

In the evening we went to see Dreams of Alice and Kate, the performance the students of the Musik og Teater Hoyskole made.
Liz went to bed early to try and cure her muscles.

Fun and games

2010-03-22T20:03:00.000Z

Last night we borrowed a board game from the school. Liz and Kieran went to choose one and came back with Pictionary. We all agreed that was a great idea, until we opened the box and realised you do actually need to know Danish to play it. It has cards with words on them. In Danish.

So we played with Google Translate alongside to understand the words we were supposed to draw.

Liz was the first to draw, and I was meant to guess what she was drawing.
She picked a card, Alex set the timer on his iPhone (the hourglass was no longer in the box), Liz picked up the pencil and started drawing. After about 2 seconds she started laughing hysterically whilst drawing.
She laughed and laughed (and drew) for a whole minute, and I couldn't guess what she was drawing (mainly being distracted by her howls of laughter.

It was the Pink Panther.

After about an hour we were joined by Marie, Margit and Sjon, who'd just come back from Copenhagen. They were assigned to our existing teams and the game became louder and louder.
As we don't have any neighbours, we could be as loud as we wanted.

Our team (Liz, Margit, Sjon and I) won twice.

Tales of Toftlund City

2010-03-21T19:29:00.000Z

We've reached the end of the first week and explored some of our stories and experiences, and discovered most of Toftlund.

Work first:
On Thursday we worked in pairs or threes to present our journey to the rest of the group in a format of choice.

On Friday we formed two groups and made short scenes including at least two of the stories and one song we brought on board and using some sort of contemporary media, using some photos we'd made on board the Fort St. Louis.

On Saturday we went through all the music. Well, most of it - we ran out of time, as David was going home, Sjon was off to Copenhagen (the big city), Kjell was going to Asker for a birthday party and Tomas was flying to Prague to shoot an advert.

So on Sunday there were only 4 of us left in Toftlund.
Alex, Kieran and I went to check out the Ostsee at the east coast of Jutland.
It looks like this.

You might say this sea looks very similar to the one we visited last Wednesday, but the beach was a lot smaller for one, and it wasn't as cold here as it was at the North Sea.

Today the students of the Theatre and Music Hoyskole opened their show: Dreams of Alice and Kate. We're planning to go and see it later this week. They seemed in very good form when they showed up at the dinner table, and apparently all had gone well.
They're playing again at 10am tomorrow morning, but that didn't seem to hold them back from having a bit of an opening night party. Good for them.

See the sea

2010-03-18T12:32:00.000Z

We've settled into the routines of Toftlund's Theatre and Music School and our closed down hotel has reopened its golf course, so we are no longer alone. No one stays there apart from us, but some people arrive in the morning to play golf.

Yesterday afternoon, after Margit sped off to Copenhagen to be one of the Three Sisters, we headed west to see the sea. So we went to Rømø.

We drove onto the beach

And parked the car

David and Alex tested the water

I found Kjell's glasses, which he had lost in Asker

And then, after 10 minutes of the beach, we were cold and tired

In the evening, Kjell, Sjon and I drove to Fredericia to see a Brecht concert. The band was Laila and Symfobia, and they were fantastic.

Today we are working on a set of miniperformances we will play when Margit gets back at 4pm. (She's doing a matinee today, I think).

Arrived

2010-03-16T17:58:00.001Z

After a long drive from Asker, we have now landed in Toftlund (you might have to check a map for this one). It's a very small Danish town that is home to a theatre and music school.
Kjell, Elisabet and I drove down from Asker and picked up Sjon, Alex, Kieran, Tomas and Marie at Copenhagen airport. Marie didn't fly in, but she lives in Copenhagen, so she met us with the others at the airport.
Then we picked up David in Kolding (he had taken a train from Hamburg).

We arrived in Toftlund and headed for the dining room, were dinner was being served. We got some instructions about the school, dinner/lunch/breakfast times, kitchen policies and so on.

Then we went to the hotel, which is just around the corner. It is a closed down Golf Resort hotel, and we have a series of two bed flats we share. There is no one else there (since it's closed down).

Margit would be arriving at 1pm, after having played The Three Sisters in Copenhagen. Initially she wouldn't be with us for the first 3 days because of her touring schedule, but she changed her mind and now she is driving down after the show to arrive in Toftlund after midnight, work with us in the morning and then head back to Copenhagen after lunch.
I might find all of the back and forth driving in between playing and rehearsing quite taxing, but Margit seems to possess an endless source of energy.

We watched some video we made on the boat, and it was fantastic to go back in time a little bit. And as Marie and Sjon weren't with us on the boat, there was a lot to be shared.

I started a website which will hold a collection of photographs and bits and pieces we are working with throughout the process. The site will remain a work in progress, as I will gradually replace and add material.

Pimping the van

2010-03-14T12:22:00.000Z

Yesterday (and today) we are having some time off prior to starting rehearsals for the Sea Journey.
So Kjell and I decided to do some work on the van.
We found out that someone had tried to break into the back of the van, which really disappointed me. I had always thought of Norway as an incredibly safe place, where you could leave the door unlocked without having to worry about anything.
That fairy-tale belief has gone now.

They didn't manage to get into the van, but they did manage to completely destroy the lock.

Still, we decorated some more anyway.

Kjell started with replacing the radio. I thought the speakers were completely rubbish and without bass, but we tested various combinations and it became clear that it was the radio itself that had no bass.

I went to get the extra bits Spleen had given to Iva and hung them over the rearview mirror (for which I'm planning to make something special later, seeing as there is no rear view in the van).

Kjell also bought me a coffee cup holder (I'd been complaining a lot about the lack thereof) - it's a Lacoste.

And last but not least I stuck on the sticker Lenka gave me.

Next stop Denmark. Let's see what there is to find in Toftlund...

Exit Sweden, enter Denmark

2010-03-14T12:11:00.002Z

We finished our shows in Stockholm and said extensive goodbyes to the technicians who'd helped us during the past few days. We all really enjoyed Stockholm and the C/O stage in the Stadsteatern, and are keen to go back there.

This is all of us on our stage.
We wanted our helping hands in the picture too, so we called them over.

The two extra people in the following picture are Ole and Robert, two of the technicians.
Daniel (the man who focused our lights, somehow didn't make it into this picture, but he is in the one below).

What I didn't realise until I loaded these pictures into my computer, is that Kjell tried to dismantle the space (presumably to take it with him). That's how much we liked it there...

Winter in Stockholm

2010-03-11T09:20:00.000Z

We are in Stockholm. It is sunny but cold.
This year winter seems to last a very long time. We saw the snow arrive in Tromso at the end of September, and it is now mid March and we are still surrounded by snow.

But anyway.
Our flight from Oslo to Stockholm was very smooth, and when we arrived we were greeted by two taxi drivers, one of which was eating an ice cream.
We piled all of our stuff into two cars and managed to make it fit (it was tight), and drove to the theatre. The driver of the car I was in didn't seem to know where he was going and consulted a map that looked at least 20 years old.

He got us close to the theatre and made us walk the rest of the way. The Stadsteatern in Stockholm is so enormous a street runs through the middle of it, making it even harder for us to find out where to go. So we ended up in three small groups: me, Iva, the kids and Lenka were in the main hall, and couldn't see any signs for the C/O Lilla Scena where we were supposed to be. We'd left Kjell by the car awaiting further instructions of where to go - and assistance with the rest of the stuff. We had no idea how far away the others in the other car where and whether they'd also get dropped off somewhere quite random.

In the end we all found each other and found our stage.

We were given some tea and rehearsed the music for the show.

The next day (Tuesday) I went in to set up the lights and we did a run through in the afternoon. Then Alex and Cat arrived and we played to a nearly full house. It was great fun and after the show we were taken out for dinner by the theatre.

Yesterday I went for a wander through Stockholm while Kjell, Anna and Aude did a workshop with some actors from the ensemble.

I watched a bit of the changing of the guards at the royal palace.

Later in the afternoon we met some of them for a chat about how we worked and how they worked. This theatre employs 150 actors. We didn't meet them all.

After the show last night, Tom, Anna and I went into the old town to see a bluegrass band called Le Chat Mort. They were great.

Ready for Sweden

2010-03-07T13:51:00.000Z

We finished rehearsals and played a show to a very small audience of friends yesterday afternoon. It was a slightly ominous start as the fire alarm went off about 15 minutes before we started.
Initially there was a voice that kept repeating: 'this is a fire warning, the alarm has been set off and we are locating the fire'. Or something like that (it was in Norwegian). The voice went on for what felt like an eternity, and then there was some kind of alarm.
We briefly thought Iva had set off the alarm with the iron, but that was very unlikely. She unplugged it anyway.

Then a man came into our space (of which we had carefully blocked the fire escape, so he had some issues coming in), asking if we'd been cooking. The alarm system pointed at the bar outside the space we were working in. Only we hadn't been cooking, unless you'd call making tea cooking.

He said it would all be ok, but then the voice said we had to leave the building.
So we did.
Our audience arrived and we had a chat with them outside and waited.

And then, at 2.58pm, we were allowed back in. Apparently they'd been making too much popcorn in the cinema downstairs.

The show was fun, the audience seemed to enjoy it, and then we packed up and headed back to Kjell's house to celebrate his birthday. It turned out to be quite a party, and it was a fantastic end to a great week.

Today we have a day off and we're all going to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.
And tomorrow we all fly to Stockholm.

Walking on water

2010-03-05T20:46:00.000Z

't Is the snowy season. 't Is also the birthday season.
Last night we celebrated Anna Moberg's 8th birthday. She got presents, cards and cakes. We screamed the devil out of both cakes, and ate them.

Afterwards we all felt quite full and decided to go for a walk to the fjord. Over dinner we had discussed walking on the frozen sea, and even though Kjell's brother didn't seem too convinced about the safety of the ice in Holmen (where we were), we gave it a go anyway.

We walked on water.

A snowfight followed, and Tom stopped to get the snow out of his shoes.
To me it seemed as if his method would get even more snow into his collar and possibly into his pants, but I guess his shoes would be ok.

We found our way back home, everyone was refreshed and the cakes had been digested, and we had an early night.

Today we did two run throughs and celebrated Kjell Moberg's 40th. With delicious fish and more cake.

Tomorrow we will play for an audience of friends and then we'll have a day off on Sunday before we all fly to Stockholm.

Half Past Remembered...

2010-03-02T17:25:00.001Z

... is the name of a song Corin Raymond wrote for/about NIE.

We're now all in Asker, rehearsing Past Half Remembered.

Yesterday I arrived with the van and as I would never manage to get up the hill to Kjell and Iva's house, Iva met me down at the bottom of the hill to take the instruments up the hill in her car.

We nearly got up the hill... Very very nearly.

If you can't get up a hill on snow, the only way out is to back down. But Kjell and Iva's driveway has a tricky curve, and backing out on a curvy hilly driveway is not easy. So Iva got the curve wrong and got stuck in a meter of snow. Both of us got the shovel out to uncover the wooden box of gravel (which was also covered in a lot of snow). We threw gravel in front of all of the wheels and tried again. No joy.

So we decided to ask Anna and Aude for help.

In this case pictures say a lot more than words, so all I will add to this is that we spent an hour getting the car all the way to the bottom of the driveway.

After all of that we felt like we'd had a decent workout (with pushing the car, shovelling snow, getting gravel back and forth).

We made no further attempts at getting the car up the hill. We parked it in the car park next to the van.

Then Alex and Tom (Anderson) arrived and despite Alex' encouraging, I refused to attempt to get the big van up the hill.

We had an early dinner and headed to the office in Oslo for a music rehearsal.

We made Tom (Anderson) work very hard for a few hours and then called it a day around 8.30pm.
We had late dinner and waited for Tom (Mechacek) to arrive.

This morning we got up for an early start to attempt to guide Tom (Anderson) through the whole play.
Every now and again we got side-tracked because we were having too much fun reinventing some scenes. We got quite far through it though, and Tom (both of them) did a great job, so tomorrow we'll crack on, get to the end and try to run through the whole show.

Ok, Wake Up!

2010-02-27T21:59:00.000Z

I know it's been quiet for a while, but we're about to get into some serious action.
(I believe the guys from B61 have already been in action during the past week, but as I wasn't there, I have no first hand information).

As of tomorrow, I'm back on the road.
Still in the new van.
I'm convinced the initial hiccups must have passed now, and me and Mr Tatmobile are off to the ferry to Goteborg tomorrow.
From Monday the PHR (Past Half Remembered) team will meet up in Oslo to re-rehearse. A man called Tom Anderson will alternate David in the show, and we'll spend a week getting him worked in. He's no stranger (he is part of the New Arrivers gang), so I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun.
Then we're off to Stockholm, one of my favourite cities in Europe, even though I've only been there once and it wasn't for very long.

Then straight after that, we're going to Denmark, to a village near Haderslev. I can't remember the name of the village, but you'll hear enough about it once we're there. Why are we going there? To be closer to Margit, who will be performing at that time.
And while we're there, we'll be rehearsing the Sea Journey. It's been a few months since we've been on the boat, and I for one am very excited to explore what we got out of it. David just emailed most of the music we made on the boat, and listening to it brought back fond memories.
A few weeks ago in Graz, Alex was saying he'd like to go around the world on a cargo ship one day. We couldn't work out how long that would take.
I'd like to go around the world without flying. But not just with boats. Boats and trains seems like a great combo.

So that's March laid out for you.
I will keep you updated as always, and if you're around in Oslo, Stockholm or the small Danish village: come and say hello - and put your stamp on our van.

Driving by numbers 20: Graz-Berlin

2010-02-11T16:52:00.000Z

Distance: nine hundred and thirty six kilometres
Duration: twenty eight hours and twelve minutes
Idiot drivers: one.
Accidents: many.
Snow most of the way.

The actual driving was only eleven hours and twelve minutes, but added to that I waited by the side of the motorway (and nearly froze), I spent the night in Passau, visited four different garages in Passau, and found new bolts to put my wheel back on.
After all of that, I still have no clue what Passau looks like.
Very white, I'd say.

On the way I saw two cars slip but pull their car back into their own lane, I saw 5 cars stranded (3 of them badly damaged), I heard about many terrible crashes on the radio, had two slight slips myself, and saw lots and lots of snow. And a lot of trucks.

I also heard Lady Gaga on the radio 9 times and Dancing Queen twice.

And now I am home.

Stuck in Passau

2010-02-10T21:15:00.001Z

In a perfect world, this post would have been called: driving by numbers: Graz-Berlin.

But I didn't make it to Berlin yet. I am in Passau.

One of my wheels came loose and I lost two bolts.

I blame the man in Sweden who put the tyres on two weeks ago. Wouldn't you?

By the time the mechanic came to help me (it took him an hour and a half to arrive), the garage was already closed so I couldn't get those two bolts.

So I need to wait until tomorrow morning.

While I was waiting by the side of the motorway for the mechanic to come and fix the problem, I did this:

So the van is now a little less generic, and a little more NIE.

Everything Falls Apart at Spleen - Post 250

2010-02-10T21:09:00.001Z

The get-in for Everything Falls Apart finished around 10pm, and as everything was set, we decided to have a later start the next day. 1.30pm would do - enough time for a music rehearsal, soundcheck and run through before Alex had to fly off back to the UK to prepare for a scratch performance of Sea Journey.

In the morning Iva, Anna, Alexander and I went for an international haircut. The ladies at the hairdresser were very nice, and once Anna's hair had been cut to the required length (I think she got about 20cm cut, if not more), and the kids were waiting for me and Iva, one of the ladies asked Iva if she could put some colour in Anna's hair, promising it would wash out with the first wash.
Iva agreed and shortly afterwards, Anna had some pink streaks in her hair. It was very cool, so Alexander wanted some colour too.
He got some blue.

I just got a trim, because I don't want my hair too short during winter.

In the afternoon, we went into TAO to rehearse EFA. It was great to come back to that show - the last time we did it was in September.
We made Beate run around a bit to pick up some stuff we broke/forgot/needed, and we were ready for the show.

Since TAO is a little bit narrower than the space we usually use, 80 people suddenly felt like a lot, but they found their way around and understood quite quickly that they could move to wherever they felt they would see best.

And then everything went very fast: we played, went to bed, got up, played again, packed up, had lunch, filled the van, got in cars/vans/trains.

Exit Graz...

My Life With the Dogs at Spleen

2010-02-08T20:54:00.001Z

(the van arriving at the theatre - it has been 4 years since we were here last, and I had forgotten where to unload vans)

We got to the theatre at 9am and unloaded everything. TAO (Theater am Ortweinplatz) gave us a nice big room to put all of our stuff in. We went straight to work taking out the stage (we'd have to take out even more for Everything Falls Apart, so we thought we might as well start with the stage immediately).
Clemens and his colleagues were very fast and moved on to hanging lights and our enormous sodium lamp in no time.

Tom went missing for about an hour - he didn't emerge from the train Beate was picking him up from, and while she searched the train for a sleeping actor, Iva phoned anyone she thought could have more information on Tom's whereabouts. Tom himself wasn't answering his phone, and after several tries we decided his battery must have run out.

Doom scenarios were constructed: did he forget to get off? If he did, where could he be? Bratislava? Further? Or did he miss the train altogether?
Four people confirmed he got on the train. Or at least left the theatre in Prague on time to make it onto the train.

An hour and a half later he walked into the theatre.
Due to reorganisation of the train he was on, there was a delay which made him miss his connection from Vienna to Graz. As simple as that. He used someone else's phone to reassure everyone we had succeeded in worrying, and then helped us with setting up for a run through.

The show in the evening was very full, and a lot of fun. The audience made them come back for five curtain calls. (Five!)

In the meanwhile Liz had arrived and we took her along to the festival centre for some food and drinks. (And a lot of praise from the people who had seen the show).

When we got back to the hotel, Unai arrived. He'd come from Vittoria to Graz via Palma de Mallorca.

The next morning (well, noon), we played a second show to mainly teenagers. It was great fun again.

This was our walk to the theatre:

After we finished, it was time for a lot of action. Kjell and I went for lunch while the others packed the set, and an hour later we swapped teams and I made Clemens and his colleagues take all of the seats out of the theatre.

Most of our shows are very simple and we generally don't ask for much, but with Everything Falls Apart it is quite a different story. But I think that after all of these years of being flexible and simple, we deserve to be more demanding now.
Clemens didn't seem to mind, he kept smiling and didn't ever call me a slave driver.

Driving by numbers 19: Berlin-Graz

2010-02-06T20:33:00.001Z

Distance: nine hundred and thirty six kilometres
Duration: nine hours and seventeen minutes
Idiot drivers: none
Snow during the last 5 hours.

When I arrived in Graz, the Moberg family, Alex and Bob were already there. I got there at 6pm and after showing off my new van we headed to the festival hub to get some food. We met Ossi who had invited us there and whose theatre we were about to perform in. He was in great form.

Graz was covered in snow and cold. But the festival atmosphere made up for the cold. Colombo was there as well - Sgaramusch had performed the day before and he stayed behind to be in the jury of the Jungwild section of the festival.
Jungwild are young people who make theatre. Three of them would win a prize to help them develop their work further.

We had some drinks with old friends and new friends, and then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep after a long travel day and before some long festival days.

Travel by numbers 18: Oslo-Berlin

2010-01-27T15:04:00.000Z

Driven distance: seven hundred and twelve kilometres
Driving time: eight hours and twenty eight minutes
Sailing distance: four hundred and seventy three kilometres
Sailing time: fourteen hours
Idiot drivers: two enormous ones

So I tested my new friend and learned a few things:
1. I can drive uphill without slowing down.
2. a cup holder is crucial, but even more crucial is the right place to put one.

I got the tyres changed in a very small garage in Gothenburg, run by a very nice Iraqi man. He told me he'd been living in Sweden for 26 years, and almost never went back to Iraq because he found it too difficult and dangerous there. But his elderly parents still live there, so he does go back every couple of years to visit them. He made me coffee and we talked about the weather.
The biggest surprise there was the toilet. It was a tiny little room, painted in a very bright pink. I thought that was quite unusual for a garage.

Then I drove to the ferry.
I saw a truck lose its load in front of the check-in gates. First there was a loud crashing noise, and I didn't know what it was, then I looked over and saw the truck.

The trailer had come off the cabin and had hit the ground. Seconds later, the driver jumped out of the cabin, saw what had happened and grabbed his head with both hands. I felt really sorry for him.
He couldn't move, as the trailer was still lying partly on the tail end of his cabin. (I'm sure these things have proper names, but I'm not a trucker and I don't know them.)

Then a forklift came.

He lifted the trailer off the cabin and drove off again. To me it seemed like he could have been useful in putting the trailer back on as well, but what do I know.

The driver was on the phone running back and forth, into the building, back out, circled around his truck for a while.

All of this took about half an hour (check-in hadn't opened yet, so I was stuck there waiting - it's not as if I'd parked especially to witness the events unfold).

More truckers came to see what had happened, and they probably offered some advice.

This is the last thing I saw: the man trying to get the trailer back onto the truck.
Once I was on board, I could see the truck was no longer there, so he must have succeeded.

New International Encounter

Tales from the River Thames

Dog sledding in the far far north

It snowed a lot and we made a small snowman after rehearsals

Midday Darkness

Wednesday in the far far north

Tuesday night in Svalbard - the northern lights.

Made it to the far north.

Made it to Tromso

Back North

"Ten Best Theatre" in The Independent: Hansel & Gretel

Four star review from The Guardian for Hansel & Gretel

Opening night & the first set of reviews are in for Hansel & Gretel!!

Guardian theatre tips - Hansel & Gretel

Final rehearsals for Hansel & Gretel (UK)

Twist/Guttens hemmeligheter in Gent

A gingerbread house

More Hansel and Gretel Blog

Design meeting for Hansel & Gretel

Minnenes Museum Day 1

Museum of Memories

Hansel & Gretel: set design

Back in the south.

Made it back

Last day in the town at the end of the world

The Abandoned Pyramiden Mining Town

Barentzberg - the Russian Colony

At the top of the mountain

More Longyearbyen mountain

Up the Mountain

Boat trip to the glacier

Into longyearbyen

Monday afternoon

Oslo Airport - the first hop north

The point of no return

North North North

Hansel and Gretel in London

space for a show (part 3): historic gem

space for a show (part2):across the water

Space for a show (part1): underground London

Say cheese!

Pim and Theo in London

Pym and Theo first days

ASSITEJ international Award

ASSITEJ 2011

Copenhagen workshop at the ASSITEJ world congress

ASSITEJ world congress

Our shop has changed...

On my way to Copenhagen

Sea Journey touring

We've gone audio crazy - more about Mayfest

Our first audio boo post (its digital you know)

A bit of video about Sea Journey on Tour....

Some Hansel and Gretel Audio

Hansel and Gretel - sharing work at BAC

More Hansel and more Gretel...

Starting new work at BAC

Two Awards for NIE!

More from the UK Tour

Tales from a Sea Journey/Hav: UK tour

Mexico

Festival Vol.I

Vol.I looks like this:13.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey - world premiere14.1 Seminar15.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey + VETEX opening party

16.1 My Life with The dogs17.1 Workshop18.1 Workshop19.1 The Song of Lost Treasures20.1 No program21.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey22.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey

Over the salty sea

Sea Costumes

Snow and Cold

Rehearsals in Asker

The Deserted Island

Dafne Prize for MLWD in Kristiansand

Tour in Østfold- Norway

Tales From The Middle Of Town

Finland- Helsinki Festival

Japan -Kijimuna Festa

Hradec Workshop 2010

Table Tennis and Football in Germany

A Bristol Sandwich - Lund/ Bristol/ Stamsund

Explanation

Second trilogy in Lund

One trilogy down, one more to go

Vol.I looks like this:
13.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey - world premiere
14.1 Seminar
15.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey + VETEX opening party

16.1 My Life with The dogs
17.1 Workshop
18.1 Workshop
19.1 The Song of Lost Treasures
20.1 No program
21.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey
22.1 Hav / Tales from a Sea Journey