BELOW OUR SKY
"The problem is not that someone is moving out - the problem is that no one is moving in"
How does the place you choose to live affect your life? Are you going to leave or are you going to stay, or maybe come back?
An unceremonious, quick and strong performance about roots, expectations, about important choices and about life itself.
In three stories we meet persons of different generations who are faced with different choices. The persons are in small communities, and have to make choices for the future. We get to participate in future choices, and choices made a long time ago.
A high tempo and funny situations alternate with strong encounters between past and present. What do love, family and work mean to our lives? Do we need a place to belong? Should young people take responsibility for people moving from their the village?
BACKROUND
This started as an idea to make a performance as a journey through the counties of Oppland and Hedmark. But who would take the journey and why? And why exactly had this idea ended up with playwright Lene Therese Teigen? It should not be about the tourists who see the surface, but about those who belong, or will belong, in all possible ways. What is home? What are these strange feelings about places where we have lived all or part of our lives? Teigen has roots in several places in Oppland, and the sense of belonging was strong. But what does that mean today?
In recent years, a lot of research has been done on emigration, migration and return. People of different ages, both women and men, have answered questions about what led to where they have ended up living. It turns out that what we think are conscious choices are often coincidences.
Teigen embarked on a journey in Hedmark and Oppland, filmed the landscapes and talked to young people and adults about their relationship o their hometowns. In a landscape where many struggle with dilemmas about whether to travel out into the world or stay where they are, the photos and interviews soon became a part of the performance, also containing several composed stories. The result was the lives of twelve people in three family stories.
TEAM
LENE THERESE TEIGEN
Text, director
KRISTIN BENGTSON HAGEN
Scenography, costumes
TOV RAMSTAD
Sound designer
OLAV NORDHAGEN
Light design
HALLDIS HOAAS
Dramaturg
JANNY HOFF BREKKE
CECILIE LUNDSHOLT
JOHN NYUTSTUMO
ENDRE SKJÅK
Actors
LARS KRISTIAN SKJETNE
Video and design
PREMIERE
14 January 2012
Marlo Grendhaus, Skjåk.
On tour in Innlandet January to March 2012
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Teater Innlandet
PUBLISHER
2012, Transit Forlag
REVIEWS
BELONGING
A conversation between dramaturg Halldis Hoaas og playwright/director Lene Therese Teigen
"The performance is full of important questions about what makes life worth living in the village", wrote the newspaper Nationen.
"Higly relevant theatre"
A lokal newpaper, Fjuken.