Days Below (2015)
Premiere September 24, 2015.
Director: Kristin Bjorn
Set designer: Marcus Olson
Sound designer: Amund Sjølie Sveen
Lighting designer: Tobias Leira
Dramaturg: Tale Næss
Actors:
Bernt Bjorn
Mary Sarre
Kristine Myhre Tunheim
Kristoffer Veiersted
About the playwright:
Arne Lygre
The performance is a collaboration with Hålogaland Theater and Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter
Supported by the Arts Council of Norway and the Fund for Performing Artists
STATEMENTS
inTromsø
Northern Lights
Amund Grimstad
Lillian Bikset- Theatre critic Dagbladet
'Days Below' is a strong and original production.
Kristin Bjørn's direction and Bernt Bjørn's play emphasize how feeling weak, insecure, without a purpose can be a motive for wanting to take control of others... The sound solution is built into the amphitheater, which functions as a kind of basement walls where the audience sits. This makes the audience a physical part of the scenario in a different way than we are used to in the theater. Lillian Bikset, Dagbladet
"Days Under", directed by "Ferske Scener" is a very special thriller. The characters talk about themselves and each other in the third person and there is almost no physical contact between the four actors. Yet you squint your eyes and hide as bones are broken, limbs are cut off and blows are dealt – literally in sentence form. – "Owner" beats "Woman". "Owner" walks out of the room.
It is a frighteningly good storytelling technique that is practiced down in the claustrophobic basement of "Owner", played by Bernt Bjørn. – iTromsø
– We must act. We have a duty to act when we see that something is not right.
This is what the main character says in Arnes Lygre's text Dager Under. He helps people become who they are really meant to be. He sets them free. The only problem is that he has to keep them locked up while they get rid of their old selves. And in the process, he sometimes has to be tough. Tougher than he likes to be.
It is the one who helps who has the power. The transitions between helper and power holder and abuser of power can be difficult to spot. It is easy to see when we look back in history. We gradually know a lot about what has happened under the guise of the best intentions in orphanages, in the treatment of Taters, or in the Norwegianization of the indigenous Sami population in Norway.
We take it for granted that we are the good guys. In reality, goodness, wealth, and power are a pretty difficult combination.
Arne Lygre is a playwright who is constantly expanding the framework of drama. There is a richness of perspective in his dialogue that is unique. The characters can see themselves from the outside, twist and turn their point of view and comment on themselves and each other for the audience. It is a form of theater that suits us at Ferske Scener well. We constantly return to where we started – to narrative theater.
Photo: Ingun A. Mæhlum
