Riddarhyttan, Sweden (2012)

PERFORMANCE

This is a unique experience in Sweden: Heiner Müller’s entire play is performed in Swedish by a team of 11 actors and musicians who are also passionate about the play. La communauté inavouable and Le Teatermaskinen have already staged this play separately two or three times.
Now they are teaming up for a joint production, co-directed by Clyde Chabot and Jonas Engman. It draws on the highly committed work of the company’s performers, and is part of the participatory process developed by the French team. The reality of the site and elements of its recent construction are brought into play. The audience, like contemporary Hamlets and Ophelia, join the actors in questioning our European identity and the intimate meaning of Müller’s words in Riddarhyttan today.

The aim is to anchor the meaning of this enigmatic play in Swedish history from the twentieth century to the present day and in the European context, the very subject of the play being the ruins and future of Europe and social utopias.
Teatermaskinen is an independent theatre company based in the forests of Bergslagen in Sweden, directed by Jonas Engman, which produces major avant-garde productions based on texts by the celebrated Swedish playwright Johan Jönson and Heiner Müller. Its productions have been presented in leading theatres in Sweden and abroad. They aim to challenge the existing aesthetic field and open up unknown or forgotten territories.
The company also produces monologues designed to generate an exchange with the audience. These monologues, like the productions that bring together a larger team of six actors and a musician, are based on themes such as unemployment, the environment and equality. They are performed for audiences with a direct link to these themes in professional venues, conferences or seminars.
Since 2000, Teatermaskinen has been creating and physically building an 1100 m2 international theatre in the forests of Riddarhyttan. Artists from Brazil, Peru, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, Germany and Kurdistan have already been welcomed here. The project also includes hosting artists, authors and researchers in residence, so that they can develop and present their work there.
The company regularly receives support for its large-scale projects through international funding (European Cultural Programme, KK Nord, Nordisk Kulturfond, Swedish Embassy, Goethe Institut). Teatermaskinen’s work ranges from local to international and is based on openness, curiosity and courage.