Dracula dans la forteresse de Cluis-Dessous

In the fortress of Cluis-Dessous, an old beautiful ruin, the amateur theatre group - or association - called Le Manteau d'Arlequin, staged the classical story about the blood sucking Dracula, first and foremost known through the book by Bram Stoker.

Briefly about the group: They were founded in 1920 under the name of Société Musicale et Lyrique, changed the name to le Cercle Lyrique before taking the name they now use.

They have won several competitions for amateur theatre groups, held in Montluçon and Vichy.

The performance of the evening kept itself very much to the book by Stoker but it also had references to the film by Francis Ford Coppola, who in turn is very loyal to the original book.
The night and all its shadows and the castle ruins, of course created an ambience worthy the content.
No microphones were used wherefore the actors sometimes had to spek out more loudly than the situation demanded, taking in to consideration the content of the story.
On the other hand music interleaved the change of scenes and prerecorded sound was used in a very comic way. E.g. when someone dropped a cup the sound was amplified making it sound as if a whole store of porcelains were knocked about.
On the whole a well staged performance ending at one o'clock in the night.

I apologize for the bad quality of the photos, taken with an iPhone without zoom.


























































(Photo poster copied from: http://a34.idata.over-blog.com/314x500/2/79/27/64/FINAL-AFFICHE-DRACULA-4.jpg)

Kasimir & Karoline

On Saturday (the 3rd of January) I was invited by my best friend, Siw-Marie, to the National Theatre in Stockholm (Dramaten).

She works there as an extra in Uncle Vanya (Onkel Vanja) by Chekhov (Tjechov).
The play she invited me to see tonight was Kasimir & Karoline by Ödon von Horváth.
I'm not familiar with this - more or less - Austrian author and playwright to any larger extent, I must admit.
He was born in 1901 in Fiume (or Rijeka) in Croatia and died in Paris in 1938.

The play is situated in the Weimar republic of the 1920's. It's about a young couple - a man and a woman - and how their relationship gradually changes when he looses his job.
This event in their life, poses important questions concerning relations, power, social stratas in society and the differences and similiarities between people despite their social belonging.
It's a story about life and death, about trying to raise oneself above the vegetating 'masses' among other things.
It's also a play about the rising nazism and the social-economical basis for their success and how people tend to search for a strong leader and radical change when problems arise. To this could be added the stigmatization of 'the others', notably foreigners and, what could be regarded as, 'misfits'.

The acting was - with some exceptions - brilliant.

I would like to point out Magnus Roosman, Rebecka Hemse, Johan Holmberg (who's one of my favourites at the Swedish National Theatre/Dramaten) and Erik Ehn.

Well worth seeing as it also give the spectator the opportunity to observe some Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt, used in this play.

In the youtube-clip above you find some interviews with the theatrical manager and the actors in Swedish but also an interview with the director of the play, Michael Thalheimer, in English.

Backa theatre

A new theatre is inaugurated in Gothenburg today.

It's the so called 'Backa theatre' and their ensemble who now can use a new building for their theatre performances.
They are celebrating this with three performances all of which are based on 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky with Raskolnikov in the center of course.

The three plays use the same scenography (stage design), the same costumes and partly the same actors but have different kinds of intonation and are directed to different ages.

Above: Mattias Andersson, artistic director

(Photo Backa Teater copied from: https://vartgoteborg.se/backa_teater_inviger_nya_lokaler_pa_lindholmen/)
(Picture book 'Crime and Punishment copied from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqzTKtV0W-7yNy__v5nr6nRW8s5wn4LDrX1dJ8VfY4MQQMjOySZFIIaE0T-I20HUJZ8QoAdot8b0UCnANcVWkdvDLnyBjlTI3NNC3jRVRd4kyuS_XoyQU_c_ottYrEz2OKnm7I/s1600/1122.gif)
(Photo Mattias Andersson copied from: https://www.expressen.se/gt/backa-teater-invigs-pa-lindholmen/
Mattias Andersson konstnärlig ledare)

Hedda Gabler by Ibsen

Svenska:

Stockholms stadsteater ger återigen Henrik Ibsens pjäs 'Hedda Gabler' (berättelsen i korthet på Dramatens hemsida: Hedda Gabler) som Ibsen skrev 1890.

Ingmar Bergman har satt upp denna pjäs vid ett antal tillfällen och Margareta Garpe har gjort den för tv.

På Stadsteatern och även Dramaten har den också givits med jämna mellanrum. Ibsen är en populär dramatiker i Sverige och inte bara här för övrigt.

'Hedda Gabler' är en pjäs som handlar om generalsdottern som gifter sig med den relativt anemiske och tråkigt Jörgen Tessman och som till slut håller på att gå under av leda p.g.a. deras händelsefattiga liv. Man påminner sig Ibsens Nora i 'Ett dockhem' men också Gustave Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' och hennes liv som även det var minst sagt händelsfattigt där spänningen infann sig i form av Léon, advokatbiträdet och jordägaren Rodolphe Boulanger.

Regisserar denna gång gör en norrman, nämligen Alexander Mörk Eidem.

Uppsättningen fick på tidningarnas kultursidor och i radions kulturnyheter god kritik: "De enklaste och de största frågorna - och smart, snygg, samtida teater!" avslutar kritikern Anneli Dufva i radion sin recension.

English:

Stockholm Municipal Theatre again put on Henrik Ibsen's play 'Hedda Gabler' (Wikipedia on 'Hedda Gabler'), a play he wrote in 1890.

Ingmar Bergman have directed this play on stage at a number of occasions and the Swedish director Margareta Garpe did it for tv. At Stockholm Municipal Theatre and the Royal Dramatic Theatre it has been played at regular intervals. Ibsen is popular in Sweden (an not only in Sweden).

'Hedda Gabler' is the story about the daughter to a general who marries the relatively anemic and boring Jörgen Tessman and in the end almost perish of boredom because of their uneventful life. One instinctively think of Ibsens Nora in 'A Doll's House' but also Gustave Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' and her boring life where the excitement came in the shape of Léon and Rodolphe Boulanger.

Directing this time is a Norwegian, namely Alexander Mörk Eidem. The production got very good reviews in Swedish newspapers and radio (the cultural news): "The simplest and greatest questions - and smart, neat contemporary theatre!" the critic Anneli Dufva ends her review.

(Photo 'Hedda Gabler' copied from: http://minerva.bloggsida.se/files/20)

(Photo 2 from 'Hedda Galber' copied from: http://www.ibsen.net/image/114504/1/114504_1.jpg09/04/hedda-gabler.jpg)

The Bakery by Bertolt Brecht

Svenska:

'Bageriet' är en sällan spelad pjäs av Betolt Brecht och i Sverige har den så vitt jag förstått överhuvud aldrig spelats. Den skrevs 1929 men uppfördes för första gången i Berlin 1967 med nyskriven musik av Hans Dieter Hosalla.

Nu är det Orionteatern i Stockholm som tar sig an denna pjäs regisserad av den meriterade Lars Rudolfsson. Pjäsen hade premiär i helgen 17-19/3.

I Sveriges Radios kulturnytt recenserades den av Gunnar Bolin och han tycktes inte imponerad av det han såg:
"För den arkeologiskt brechtintresserade är det säkert kul att se en tidigare sällan spelad pjäs. För den med teaterarkeologiskt intresse i svensk proggteaterestetik kan det möjligen också vara kul. Jag kände mig ungefär lika upplivad som jag gör när jag hör Hoola Bandolas musik i dag – var det verkligen så torftigt det lät", skrev han bl.a.

Uppenbarligen ogillade Bolin att Rudolfsson valt att pjäsen skall vara en texttrogen uppsättning med föga anknytning till dagens samhälle och konflikter mellan arbetstagare och arbetsgivare.
I pjäsen är 'utsugarna' vad som idag kallas småföretagare som bagare, skomakare, blomsterhandlare och andra bland vilka man idag kan hitta många invandrade svenskar som har sin utkomst från dessa yrken.
Genom att ej förlytta pjäsens handling till en mer tidstrogen kontext, förankrad i dagens förhållanden, uppfattar jag att Bolin menar att den förlorar sin relevans och blir till en obsolet historia som knappast kan engagera dagens publikum.

Har ej sett pjäsen men läst andra medier som ger den blandad kritik varav vissa är mycket positiva i sina omdömen.

English:


'The Bakery' by Bertolt Brecht is a play seldom staged and as far as I know it has never been played in Sweden.
The play was written in 1929 but performed for the first time in Berlin in 1967 with newly composed music by Hans Dieter Hosalla.

This weekend - 17-18/3 - it was the opening night for a new production by the Orion theatre in Stockholm with the (in Sweden) well known director Lars Rudolfsson.

The Swedish critic Gunnar Bolin (Swedish radio) was not altogether impressed by this production.
It seems as if Bolin didn't like the concept of the play staying as faithful to the text as possible, which seems to have been Rudolfsson's ambition according to Bolin.
Those people among the employees in the play who take advantage of other people for their own interests, work within the same domains - bakers, cobblers, flower venders - as many of the small businessmen (entrepreneurs) within the immigrant-groups in Sweden today.
In the play this group of small businessmen are represented by the baker and it's he or they who have the power to take advantage of his/their employees and also does/do so.
In the Swedish society today these groups often lack political influence but are very important for the economy on a small bases. By not rooting the story in the conditions of the modern society and transform the characters, it seems as if the critic Bolin thinks this play come to lack relevance today and hereby becomes very 'old-fashioned' in it's interpretation.

There are however - as always - other critics that are of a different opinion.

(Photo Bertolt Brecht copied from: http://www.spiegel.de)
(Photo Lars Rudolfsson copied from: http://www.realtid.se/ArticlePages/200701/16/20070116170101_Realtid164/Lars_Rudolfsson_200.jpg)

Björn Runge, Sara Stridsberg and Sam Shepard

Svenska (English below):

På Stockholms stadsteater har Björn Runge satt upp sin pjäs 'Uppdraget' med vissa av de skådespelare han omgav sig med i filmen 'Om jag vänder mig om' .
Detta är Runges debut som scendramatiker.

Dramatens Elverket spelar den amerikanske dramatikern/skådespelaren Sam Shepard's pjäs 'Burried Child' .
I Sara Stridsberg's (Wikipedia om Sara Stridsberg) uppsättning har denna pjäs erhållit det oförargliga namnet 'Hem till gården' vilket ger associationer till den brittiska serien 'Emmerdale Farm' där handlingen drevs framåt lika långsamt som en förorenad brittisk flod.
I den förra svenska översättningen hette denna pjäs 'Ett barn begravet' men svenskar kanske inte orkar med en sådan titel? Det påminner dem om att världen inte är så vacker som de tror eller....?

English:

At the Stockholms stadsteater (The Municipal Theater in Stockholm) the Swedish film director Björn Runge has staged his own play 'The Mission' (my translation from the Swedish title 'Uppdraget') and he direct this play himself.

He is above all known for the film 'Daybreak' ('Om jag vänder mig om') and in this play he is using some of the actors from that film but also other films.
This is his debut as a stage dramatist/playwright.

The Royal Dramatic Theatre/Dramaten is playing the American playwright/actor Sam Shepard's play 'Burried Child' but they have changed the title to 'Back to the Farm' (my translation) and this makes Swedish audience think of the Brittish series 'Emmerdale Farm' , in Swedish translated to the above name.

When this play was staged last time in Sweden it kept its original name but maybe this is a title the Swedish audience find hard to tolerate? Is it maybe a title that reminds them of the fact that the world around them is not as beautiful as they think....?

(Photo Björn Runge taken from: http://www.expressen.se/polopoly_fs/1.1069954!slot100slotWide75ArticleFull/3447786819.jpg)
(Photo Sara Stridsberg taken from:http://www.ullamontan.com/foton/portratt_sv_forfattare/stridsberg_sara_l.jpg.)
(Photo Sam Shepard taken from: www.vh1.com.)

Bernard-Marie Koltès: Quai Ouest/'Quay West'

Svenska (English below):

På Stadsteatern i Stockholm sätts den franske dramatikern Bernard-Marie Koltès drama 'Västra kajen' upp i regi av Åsa Kalmér.

Koltès beskrivs i kulturradion som en fransk Fassbinder, född 1948 i Metz i Frankrike under efterkrigstidens många gånger både turbulenta och framåtblickande, framtidsoptimistiska period, död i AIDS 1989.

Han var starkt polemisk mot vad han uppfattade som den franska arrogansen och nationalismen men inte endast den franska utan hela västvärldens arrogans mot andra kulturer.
Han kände sig också - så vitt jag kan läsa mig till - som homosexuell synnerligen instängd i en heterosexuell värld.
Han kunde inte leva upp till 'Normen'.

Hans pjäser handlar mycket om ensamhet och död.
Här finns självfallet uppenbara likheter med Jean Genet.

I 'Västra kajen' är det en rik man med sin sekreterare som kommit ned till den i pjästiteln omtalade kajen i syfte att dö.
Detta par beskrivs i Kulturradion av Maria Edström, som "...två flaxiga, rika, tomma människor" (Kulturrradion P1, 26/2) som där möter ett antal vinddrivna människor som nu får chansen att försöka utnyttja och profitera på detta par så mycket de kan.
Allt är till salu och kan säljas och köpas enligt eget godtycke.

Recensenten Maria Edström, konkluderar att det inte känns som ett besök i ett museum över 1980-talet utan att pjäsen i högsta grad har sin aktualitet även idag: "....i en värld, där vi alla numera förväntas uppfatta oss som varumärken.....".

Att vi alltid som människor har varit mer eller mindre 'till salu' är dock inget nytt.
Att kalla det för att vi alla blivit varumärken kanske kan sägas vara ett nytt ordval de senaste tio åren.

Egoismen har alltid varit människans starkaste drivkraft men kanske hycklade vi inte med det under 80-talet utan erkände och accepterade denna sida hos människan som varandes en framåtdrivande och/eller destruktiv kraft?

English:

At Stadsteatern in Stockholm the French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès' drama 'Quai Ouest' ('The West Quai', my translation) is set up, directed by Åsa Kalmér.

In the Swedish radio he is described as a French Fassbinder, born in Metz in 1948, during a turbulent but also prosperous period when people looked ahead towards a more positive future.
He was extremely polemical against what he understodd as French and European nationalism and arrogance towards other non-European developing countries.

He also - as far as I can understand - felt himself imprisoned as a homosexual in a heterosexual context. The comparisons with Jean Genet is of course obvious.

In 'Quai Ouest' a rich man and his secretary reaches the quai mentioned in order to kill themselves. The theater critic in the Swedish radio and the cultural magazine there - Maria Edström - describe them as "...two flappy, rich, empty people..." who meets a group of poor and in a way even more miserable people living there. The latter now see a chance to take advantage of this desperate couple.
Everything is for sale and nothing is for free.

The critic found the play and the questions it poses highly relevant to this day and it's not as being transferred to a museum over the eighties and the egoism that is said to have been predominant during that period.
We can however conclude that egoism has always been the predominant behaviour among men but maybe we did not pretend being better during the 1980's but merely admitted and accepted egoism as the driving force in our lives, for bad and for good?







(Foto 'Västra kajen' kopierat från: http://www.svd.se/multimedia/dynamic/00043/14701743_43103b.jpg)
(Photo Koltès taken from: http://www.obiwi.fr/uploads/photos/userfiles/1691/1691-1241599480-bernard-marie-koltes-mention-obligatoire-du-copyright-photo-elsa-ruiz-les-editions-de-minuit-web---465fx349f.jpg)