ETC members - Information

Det Norske Teatret

Address: Kristian IV's gt. 8
City: Oslo
Postal code: 0164
Country: Norway
Phone: +47 22 47 38 00
Fax: +47 22 41 53 04
Email: ola@detnorsketeatret.no
Website: www.detnorsketeatret.no/

Det Norske Teatret

The Norwegian Theatre is Norway's largest dramatic centre. The theatre has around 230 employees and three stages, performing about 15 productions annually. The theatre has a special form of ownership with around 4 600 co-operative members spread over the whole countyr, with particular emphasis on the New Norwegian language- and youth league movements. The large, modern theatre building has also made it possible to develope the theatre into a living house of culture with activity days for children, Lunch&Poetry, matinées and concerts. The repertoire profile is first and foremost that of a Norwegian/Nordic theatre where more than half of the plays performed have Nordic authors. The repertoir also includes everything from musicals, Greek classics and French golden age works to modern experimental drama. The Norwegian Theatre had its artistic opening January 1913. The theatre was part of a popular movement which started in the late 19th century, due to Ivar Aasen's project of creating a New Norwegian language based on Norwegian dialects from all over the country, as an alternative to the written Danish-Norwegian language. The Norwegian Theatre's object clause states that the theatre shall "performe plays in the New Norwegian language in the cities and in the country." To situate a New Norwegian theatre in the capital, the very centre of officialdom's, was a daring deed, but also the whole perpose of the project. The basis for The Norwegian Theatre was Hulda Garborg's group of 13 amateur actors from 1910, called The Norwegian Playacting Group. The first artistic director of The Norwegian Theatre was Rasmus Rasmussen, and Hulda Garborg was elected chairman of the board. After the opening in the capital Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1913, the theatre experienced the longest concert of catcalls in the history of European theatre, due to its use of the New Norwegian lauguage. It developed into brutal and bloody theatre battles, and ended in police raids and arrests. The resistance served to cement theatre troupe, and created a determined fighting spirit. "We opened a theatre with the New Norwegian language in Kristiania, and lived to tell the tale", Hulda Garborg said in retrospect. During the first decade the repertoire followed closely a national pattern. A large number of plays from Norwegian rural life were performed. Either national romantic songs and dance pieces that were steeped in rich tradition in amateur dramatics, romantic narrative plays or realistic problem-plays attempting psychological character drawings. The ensemble acquired a rural-realistic style, but also developed a grotesque-fantastic farcical style related to anecdotes and fairy tales. This combined gave The Norwegian Theatre a distinctive profile that didn't exist in any other theatre in Norway. The theatre took on progressively more demanding artistic challenges. From 1920 onwards The Norwegian Theatre was a leading avant garde stage, with exciting expressionistic productions, particularly under the direction of gnes Mowinckel. Knut Hergel and Hans Jacob Nilsen played as theatre directors a large part in developing a modern repertoir and a modern artistic style. Hergel with munumental productions like "Fellow Beings" and "Antigone", Nilsen with daring de-romanticised versions of "Jeppe om the Hill" and "Peer Gynt". Under the leadership of Tormod Skagestad (1960-1979), The Norwegian Theatre consolidated its postion both artistically and economically. Classics like Shakespeare, Ibsen and Brech appeared in new and exciting productions, and The Norwegian Theatre also developed into a leading music-theatre in the Nordic coutries. International successes like "West Side Story", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Man from La Mancha" made the theatre well renowned, as did several musicals based on Norwegian works, such as Falkberget's "Bør Børson". The musical director in this periode was Egil Monn-Iversen. Concurrently, Scene 2, the theatre's intimate stage, became a concept for everybody who was interested in modern, experimental, European and Scandinavian drama. But it was also a stage for unknown classics, literary programs and children's theatre. In particular Scene 2 became Samuel Becket's theatre, through the personal interpretation of Bjørn Endreson. The Norwegian Theatre has continued to build on these traditions; to be open to new Norwegian drama and new interpreatons of Norwegian classics, and at the same time has followed modern European drama closely. Today the principal stage includes everytning from modern drama to the classics and great musicals, Scene 2 presents new Norwegian and international drama as its main profile, and the Rehersal-room developes new organizational and working formats, with the emphasis on modern drama.