Muohtadivggažat / The Sound of Snow
Multilingual performance based on incredible and true stories from the borderland between Norway, Finland and Russia. The stories are interrupted by accapella singing and joik.
The pictures of the mountain of bicycles at the Storskog border crossing went viral in 2015. Hundreds of Syrian and Afghan refugees had found a loophole in the law. Then, as now, it is forbidden to cross the border between Russia and Norway on foot or by car, but if you come by bicycle, it is fine.
Playwright Rawdna Carita Eira's idea was to follow the story of one of the bicycles on this mountain of bicycles. The bicycle becomes a common thread through a period of 80 years of incredible and true events in the area where Norway, Finland and Russia meet.
The characters are fictional, but the events they become a part of are real. They are stories of escape and homeland, of the fates of the Skolt Sámi settlement in Njuõʹttjäuʹrr (Notozero), of a legendary bar in Boris Gleb in 1965, of the world's deepest man-made hole, of sudden openings in closed borders, and of people doing what they have to to survive.
The Sound of Davvieanan ("The Northlands")
Work on the stage language in Muohtadivggažat (The Sound of Snow) has been going on for two years. From the stage, a language mix based on the actors' mother tongue and language repertoire is now heard.
Northern Norway is still multilingual, despite over a hundred years of intense Norwegianization. But the language mixtures that so many have grown up with are rarely heard in public. They have been relegated to the private sphere. The monolingual hegemony is strong, not least in the theater. It has been an established truth that each language must have its own theater. We at Ferske Scener want to challenge that truth.
Like so many in the north, we at Ferske Scener have a multicultural background. Our languages are Norwegian, Finnish and Sami, and eventually English. The performance Muohtadivggažat is the first in a series of projects where we explore multilingualism. This time our main collaboration partner is the Sami national theater Beaivas. The language work has mainly been handled by playwright Rawdna Carita Eira and director Kristin Bjørn, with strong contributions from the actors.
Language is a tool for reaching other people. It is not just the concrete content of the words that gives it meaning. We have been very pleased to learn that both we and the audience understand much more than we thought when we started.
About the playwright
Rawdna Carita Eira (1970) is a poet, librettist and playwright, and was nominated for the Nordic Council's literature prize in 2012. In 2019 she premiered the opera Two Odysseys: Gállábártnit in Canada. In 2020, the performance has been nominated for the Dora Award (Canada's Hedda Award). Eira has a Sami/Norwegian/Forest Finnish background with a father from Finnskogen (Solør) and a mother from a reindeer herding family in Guovdageaidnu. Eira has lived her whole life in the tension between Sami and Norwegian culture. Her family ran reindeer herding in Sør-Helgeland until 2002. Today, Eira works as a playwright and supervisor, and with subtitling/translation at the Sami National Theater Beaivváš. She is fluent in Northern Sami and partly also understands/writes in Southern Sami and Lule Sami.
The premiere was at the Northern Norway Festival, Harstad, June 23, 2021.
Reviews:
Norwegian Shakespeare Journal
Script :
Rawdna Carita Eira
in collaboration with Kristin Bjørn
You can read the text of the performance with Norwegian translation here:
Thank you script
Director : Kristin Bjorn
On stage :
Bernt Bjorn
Mary Sarre
Marte Fjellheim Sarre
Ekaterina Bespalova
Ivar Beddari
Sound design : Gaute Barlindhaug
Rooms and costumes : Ingvill Fossheim
Lighting design: Tor Ditlevsen
Direction consultant and audience design : Kristina Junttila
Dramaturgy consultant: Tale Næss
Producer : Siri Hallingby Børs-Lind
Project management : Bernt Bjørn, Kristin Bjørn
Graphic design : Kerstin Andersson
Funded by : Norwegian Cultural Fund, Barentskult, The Sami National Theatre Beaivváš, The Sami Parliament, Ferske Scener, Dramatikkens Hus, Hålogaland Theatre, The Festival of Northern Norway, Tromsø Municipality, Rådstua Theatre House and Troms and Finnmark County Municipality.
The Sami National Theatre Beaivváš is the main partner.
Hålogaland Theatre and the Northern Norway Festival are collaborating partners.
English translation : Neil Howard
The translation is supported by NORLA and the Norwegian Dramatists' Association.
The performance is arranged for a tour.
From a review on Nordlys.no of the performances at Hålogaland Teater 11-13.nov.2121
"A fragmented, playful, warm and perhaps also a bit messy performance from the North Calotte"
"The great thing is that it shows our common history and common life. Today and then. It shows people who fall in love across borders and group affiliations, people who dream, collect driftwood, hide from the war, and deal with life together and next to each other. It's not often we see that on stage."
"The strength of the performance lies precisely in this idea of community after all, and in the playful, open-minded approach. It is informal, the fiction is constantly broken up, and the audience is also gently drawn into the community."
Anki Gerhardsen, for Northern Lights
From a review on Scenekunst.no of a reading at Scenetekstivalen on October 4, 2020:
Even though I didn't understand a couple of the languages, I didn't find it problematic. Because inside me I have my own multilingualism that translates the emotional register the actors convey into the primal human. I don't necessarily understand everything, but I understand nonetheless. Muohtadivggažat/The Sound of Snow – was on a particularly high level that I don't quite have the words to explain, but which hit the tear duct.
Rania Broud
