Of Old Ladies, Vampires and Dildos
Active ever since 1998, Stamsund Theatre Festival can very well be considered an institution in the Norwegian performing arts scene. Nestled in a small fishing village in the Lofoten islands, way up in the northern regions of the Scandinavian country, the Festival opens up a brief window onto the world of puppet and visual theatre, inviting renowned and experimental companies to showcase their works for a local and not-so local audience. This year’s edition of the Festival, directed by Thorbjørn Gabrielsen, offers more than 10 performances, along with seminars, artist talks and other networking events, all in the space of just one week.
Created in 2011 in co-production with Odradek and Pupella-Nogues Company, Go!, by Polina Borisova, marks the beginning of our festival experience, plunging us deep in the evanescent realm of long-forgotten memories and their bright, long shadows that enter the body at every angle, just like the sun. Set in a barely-lit apartment oozing loneliness and absence, Borisova’s performance tackles the issue of coming to terms with the past, inviting the audience to inhabit the fragmented time of recollection and retrospection together with a tired, old -yet still industrious- woman.
Wearing little more than your regular granny clothes and a saggy, jutting mask that leaves only the condensed expressiveness of eyes and eyebrows exposed, the St. Petersburg State Theatre Art Academy-graduate persuasively gives life, fibre and tremor to the blossoming lessness of decrepitude, all the while wandering about the Lethean meanders of her own bygone days with… mirth. Indeed, armed with nothing but some masking tape and a fervid imagination, the crumbling protagonist navigates through islands of light that, little by little, rejuvenate her limbs and spirits, providing for some truly hilarious moments of simple yet incisive sympathy.
And as time folds and stories keep on falling on, in and around this shaky portmanteau of human experiences, we are gently pushed to look inward, scanning our own faded postcards and letters and hearing the distant ring of those calls we are still not ready to receive – or make.
Moving to the other side of visual theatre, the one with life-sized puppets, black-clad, invisible stagehands and endless possibilities, the second show for the day defiantly goes beyond genre, «fearlessly crossing the borders of other artistic expressions». As a matter of fact, and in the own words of Plexus Polaire’s director Yngvild Aspeli, «puppetry is not only a form, it is a way of seeing the world, a language, a state of mind», and judging by the wows and ohs bubbling up among the audience, it is also (and still, whatever some may say) a very stimulating experience.
Placing itself at the intersection between the physical and the psychic, Dracula «freely draws inspiration from the story of Bram Stoker to focus more particularly on women», making of Lucy Westenra (the Count’s first English victim in the novel) its narrative and declaratory core, thus prismatically multiplying and refracting her active -and reactive- female perspective. With a fantastic array of technical ingenuity and devices at its disposal, the French-Norwegian company puts together a barrage of jaw-dropping sequences that, slickly and smoothly, steer spectators amidst the figurative waters of Lucy’s inner fight with «domination, dependence and addiction to a destructive force».
Thanks to a fine-tuned, meticulous group effort that does not shy away from amalgamating handicrafts with digital projections, Plexus Polaire flexes its visual muscles to the delight of Stamsund’s audience, conjuring up a labyrinthine mindscape where every human gesture is mirrored by a mechanical one, misdirecting us so many times that we no longer know who controls who – and who’s sucking who dry, both technically and metaphorically.
Last in the series of performances dished up for the day, Canadian artist Julia B. Laperrière’s Falla/Solo «offers an invitation to playfulness, an incursion in the in-between that puts forth a vision of female sexuality that is alternative — mutating perhaps — liberated and unashamed». Calling on the transformative power of a strap-on dildo first worn -and felt– a few summers ago, Laperrière opens a discussion on gender identity, reminding us that there is no such thing as the body, but rather a continuous bodying in and on which power dynamics and social structures act fiercely – and often unsungly.
Albeit generous in its premise and joyfully refreshing in its various dickwalks, Falla/Solo seems to remain stuck in its inception (possibly due to the absence of Pia Achternkamp, the other performer on the scene, who, due to a medical emergency, could not travel to Stamsund), making for an interesting and destabilising verbal proposal that does not manage to take shape nor force also in its choreutic form.
The shows were played within 2023 Stamsund Theatre Festival
Stamsund – Norway, various locations18:00
Figurteatret I Nordland
J. M. Johansens Vei 23 – Stamsund
Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 May 2023Go!
direction, set design, acting Polina Borisova
technical assistance David Claveau
co-production with Odradek/Cie Pupella Nogues, Centre de Création et de Développement pour les Arts de la Marionnette France
20:00
Frysa-Hurtigrutekaia
J. M. Johansens Vei 2 – Stamsund
Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 May 2023Dracula
director Yngvild Aspeli
actors-puppeteers Pascale Blaison, Dominique Cattani, Yejin Choi, Sebastian Moya, Marina Simonova, Kyra Vandenenden
assistant directors Thylda Barès, Aitor Sanz Juanes
music composer Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen
puppet makers Yngvild Aspeli, Manon Dublanc, Pascale Blaison, Elise Nicod, Sebastien Puech
set designer Elisabeth Holager Lund
video designer David Lejard-Ruffet
costume designer Benjamin Moreau
light and stage technician Emilie Nguyen
sound and video technician Baptiste Coin
dramaturg Pauline Thimonnier
production director and booking Claire Costa
administration Anne-Laure Doucet
producer Noémie Jorez
production Plexus Polaire
coproduction Puppentheater Halle (DE), Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne – CDN, with the support of DRAC Bourgogne Franche Comté – Ministry of Culture, Bourgogne Franche Comté region, Kulturradet (NO), la Nef – Manufactures d’Utopies, Pantin, CENTQUATRE Paris, Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry – Val-de-Marne National Dramatic Center and Théâtre aux Mains Nues, Parisph. by João Catarino
21:15
Teater NOR
J. M. Johansens Vei 97 – Stamsund
Wednesday 24 May 2023Falla/Solo
choreography and performance Julia B. Laperrière
sound and performance Pia Achternkamp
dramaturgy Siegmar Zacharias
production assistant Micaela Kühn Jara
light Marek Lamprecht, Lina Bockrob
thanks to Helen Simard, Florentine Emigholz, Simone Kessler
a production of Julia B. Laperrière with Schwankhalle Bremen, with kind support of ICI-CCN Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier, the project is part of the culture program related to Canada’s Guest of Honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2020, we acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Canada
