Of Fire and Ice (2015)

The performance was developed from a fictionalised narrative that was written for the performance. It is made from two main sources, firstly the court records from the Tromsø archives where a small child called Marenn Oelsdatter describes a journey to hell with the devil, which implicates women and children in a chain reaction of accusations during the witchcraft trials. Alongside the confessions the narrative and performance is structurally based on the play Mystery-Bouffe written by the celebrated Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Mayakovsky used the story of the flood in the bible to explore the development of the new revolutionary society. The audience travelled through five scenes where different scenarios were played out each of them commenting on a different contemporary political situation from police use of water cannon, to Romani culture in an intolerant society. The performances ending and utopian vision was that of a flat world with integrated cultures where the Romani have inherited the earth.

Performed with: Kyuja Bae, Katarina Skår Henriksen, Eirik Slyngstad

Photography: Eirik Slyngstad