MORE OR LESS NORWEGIAN

"Courage is contagious. It's like a wave that sweeps everyone away.

Even those who don't really dare."

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Early in the morning on Thursday 26 November 1942, 100 taxis stand in a quiet queue in front of Vigelandsparken. Each taxi has a Norwegian taxi driver and three Norwegian policemen. They are waiting for the signal to initiate the most effective arrest and deportation in Norway's history. They know what they have to do and they carry it out with Norwegian thoroughness. That same afternoon, the MS Donau leaves the dock with 532 jews on board. Only nine of them will survive the war. The Germans report home that the news of the transport spread like wildfire, but without arousing great interest.

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Norsk Nok is a documentary that asks fundamental questions. There is no boundary between the actor and the author, they are the same person. This is a personal project; in Norsk Nok, the actor Janne Langaas is her self. But do we know who we are? What qualities in ourselves do we know? ... dare we get to know?

 

This is the result  two years of work. The research and our questions about why we really want to create a performance on this topic were insoluble: Yes, we wanted to create Norsk Nok – but how?

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We wanted to say something about courage and therefore also about cowardice. The story of how the jews in Norway were treated during the war stood out, and made it possible to weave in the contemporary perspective, which became very important for this project.