Sea Costumes

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...

Daylight robbery / Grand Theft Auto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Ok, Wake Up!

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.

The Voyage: Thursday November 26

We are in Gosier, Guadeloupe. We need to check out of the hotel at 11am, and go to the airport at 2pm. Our flight home is at 5pm.

It is still very hot and humid.
We pack, some people go for a final swim, and at 11am we sit down to finish off any leftovers.

We hand over our last letters to be posted from the Gosier post office, and discuss the difference between land and sea.

It's over.

We had a fantastic journey, and what you've been reading on the blog is definitely not all there is. We will all bore you to death with our stories, but I doubt any of them will really be able to explain to you how amazing it all was.
The eight of us have shared something no one can ever take away from us, and it is now up to us to turn it into a performance that will hopefully convey some of our experiences in a theatrical form of some sort.

The suitcase we will take into rehearsals contains:

24 stories from the sea
24 songs from the sea
8 disposable cameras with a variety of details from our journey
8 miniature performances related to the sea
40 letters (give our take) to people who stayed behind
thousands of photographs
hours of video footage

but most of all individual memories.

Each and every one of us has a collection of stories I didn't publish on this blog. Find whoever of us is nearest to you, buy them a beer (or a rum-based cocktail), and make them talk. It'll take a while before you get bored, and when you do, there are 7 others with different stories.

And if you have stories or songs from the sea, come and find us, we will buy you a beer or a rum-based cocktail and we will listen.

But don't worry, we won't linger and hold on to the past. There is no time for that.
At the moment the Song is on tour in Ostfold, and next week one part of NIE will play B61 in Stuttgart, while another part of NIE will start rehearsals for Around the World in 80 Days.

The Voyage: Wednesday November 25

Position: 16°13'46.26"N 61°32'37.15"W

4am. I wake up, Alex is already awake and walks into the cabin. 'Anything to see out there?' 'Oh yes'. I follow him outside and we see the lights of Guadeloupe in the distance.
LAND!

It feels like an achievement, but it comes with a sense of sadness. We've reached out destination. And we'll have to get off this ship.
We stare into the distance for a while and go back to bed.

5.30am. We wake up to the feeling of the boat slowing to a halt. Pilot time. We climb up to the bridge deck and meet Kjell and Margit. The rest follow soon after.
We can smell land. The scent of Guadeloupe soil. There are bugs. I spot mosquitoes and red wasp-like bugs.

6.30am. We have docked at the port of Point-à-Pitre. The boat has stopped moving completely. The voyage is over. It's too early for breakfast so we make our own out of all the leftovers we have: Turkish coffee, biscuits and chocolate. We sit in the deckchairs and watch the bay. The sea. East. Where we came from. Doru walks past us and gestures us to follow him into the crane. But only two of us can come. Alex and Kjell follow him up.
Margit and I go up to the bridge deck to watch Alex move the crane. The crane needs to be lifted and swung out so they can get to the containers.

Let me go back two lines:

ALEX DROVE THE CRANE.

When they get back down we decide to go for breakfast early.

8am. We pack up the last bits and tidy up our rooms.

8.30am. We move our suitcases down to Deck A so Speedy and Mario can lower them to the quay.

8.45am. We walk down the steps and say our last goodbyes. It feels strange to know that the ship will continue its journey without us. First to Martinique, then back to Guadeloupe, and then across the Atlantic back to France. Marie-Louise will be there all the way. As will Yannick, Guilhem, Delphine, Virginie, François, Xavier, Adrian, Doru, Speedy, Mario and all our other new friends. But we won't. We'll be going home the fast way. The normal way. In a plane.

9am. Taxis take us out of the harbour, away from the Fort St. Louis. It is hot. It is humid. It is the Carribean.

9.30am. We get out of the taxis. I'm talking to the driver about our airport transfer tomorrow and suddenly get struck by the weirdest sensation: I'm on solid ground yet my body is swaying. But maybe it isn't. Maybe I just feel like it's swaying. The swaying stops as soon as I start walking into the hotel. We check in and get the things we need for a day on the island. Margit, Kjell, Alex and I rent a car together. As I sit down in the car rental office the swaying feeling comes back. The others feel it too. The rolling of the sea is still in our bodies.

10am. We have two rental cars and separate into two groups, each on our own path of discovery.

Margits space/time continuum is slightly different from everyone else's. Her colour coordination still functions, though.

Our car crosses Basse Terre and drops Alex of at the Jacques Cousteau diving site. The sand is black. Volcanic.

It is quite an experience to be so alert to every sound and smell. Birds, bugs, earth, rain, jungle.

Kjell, Margit and I leave Alex behind to go diving and we drive south. Along the way we find this cemetery.

We carry on to visit a coffee plantation in the middle of the jungle. The drive their is spectacular: a steep and winding road that feels like a rollercoaster.
It's still hot and humid. Very humid. The smallest effort makes us sweat.

Our entry ticket promises us a free juice, so we all go for the guava juice. It's fantastically fresh.

After having explored the plantation museum, we head into the jungle. Their is a tour group ahead of us, so we decide to take the path they don't take at the fork in the path.

Banana trees, tangerine trees, palm trees and coffee trees. We carry on deeper into the jungle. The path gets worse and worse. We are hoping to find the actual coffee plantation, which in our imagination is a field with just coffee.
After an hour or so we find a clearing with a shack in it. We pluck some tangerines straight off a tree and take a rest. No one knows we're here. There is no phone reception. In two hours it'll be too dark to see the path. Suddenly we hear something: it sounds like someone crying for help, but the sounds goes on for too long so we decide it must be an animal.
Two minutes later we hear a very loud grunting sound. There are a few seconds of fear, until we realise it's a donkey. But we can't see it because the jungle is too dense.

We retrace our steps and understand that we've been walking through the coffee plantation all along: the coffee trees are the thin trees that grow all around us in between the bigger palm trees and banana trees.

When we get back down we're starving and go in search for some food. But by this time it is 4pm and in Guadeloupe that means not the right time to eat.

So we drive back to the diving beach to pick up Alex and have some crêpes there.

Back at the hotel we meet the other guys and decide to join the troupes again for dinner.

We have an amazing dinner in downtown Gosier.
The walk there is even more amazing, but I'll leave that for when we meet and have a drink together. It involves clambering over a jetty with missing boards, falling over in a bush, edging along a cliff being blinded by a security light, smashing coconuts, being hopelessly stuck behind fences and locked gates, and climbing of the wall of an official looking building. We did this in two groups, independent of each other, and miraculously managed to climb over the same wall within 5 minutes of each other. It was supposed to be a shortcut. It wasn't.