Rage (2017)

Rage by Elfriede Jelinek

In collaboration with The International Literature Festival Ordkalotten, Ferske Scener got a rare permission to do a reading of Jelinek’s last text. Three actors and a percussionist are banging away at the text in an improvised and musical live text performance in front of an audience. This is the first time Rage is performed in Norway.

The point of departure in Rage (written in 2015) is the attack on the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish market in Paris in January 2015. What is behind such a destructive rage? Jelinek answers this question by a collective of voices that echo the Greek myths and the Iliad, the rage of the jihadists of today, the Europeans and finally also herself. Where did it begin? Who is the right god? Do we need one?

Jelinek’s text is wild, unpleasant, transgressive and blunt. It is a recognition of the fact that rage is present in all of us and that we need these forces.

This event is based on Mia Tellander’s Swedish translation for the production at Borås Stadsteater in Mars 2017, and for the time being, is the only other production in the Nordic countries.