https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/humdiv/torch/post_show_conversations/2022-06-07-torch-psc-deadawaken.mp3
A TORCH Post-show Conversation podcast about The Coronet Theatre & The Norwegian Ibsen Company's production of When We Dead Awaken.
This conversation was recorded between Billy Barrett, Tzen Sam and Kirsten Shepherd-Barr in March 2022 on location in London. It explores their responses to the play, and the ways it connects with their knowledge exchange collaboration 'My Name is Laura Kieler'.
TORCH Post-show Conversations is a series of informal, 'on location' conversations between Oxford researchers in response to a current theatre production. Designed to capture 'on the night' responses to performance, the Conversations give listeners a chance to eavesdrop on the intersections between research and theatre practice, and give researchers the opportunity to respond in real time to the best of theatre. Variation in sound quality comes from recording in public spaces or in transit. A full transcript will be available in due course, in the meantime please contact TORCH if you have any questions about this conversation.
About the play:
From the Coronet Theatre's website:
The acclaimed The Norwegian Ibsen Company returns to The Coronet Theatre, after its award winning The Lady From The Sea, with a new adaptation of When We Dead Awaken, Henrik Ibsen’s enigmatic final play.
“It is rare that anyone gets the chance to rediscover a lost love.”
In the depths of winter, Rubek, once a celebrated sculptor, returns to Norway with his estranged young wife Maia – only to bump into his great lost love and muse Irene. Is this their opportunity to return to a world where there is meaning, hope and happiness – to awaken from the dead?
The production is directed by celebrated Norwegian director Kjetil Bang Hansen, in his first production in the UK. It features a Norwegian/ British cast, and is performed in a mixture of Norwegian and English with surtitles.
About the contributors:
Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr is Professor of English and Theatre Studies in the English Faculty at Oxford and Tutorial Fellow at St Catherine's College. Her research encompasses three main areas of interest: the interaction between theatre and science; the writings of Henrik Ibsen; and the relationship between modernism and theatrical performance.
Billy Barrett is co-Artistic Director of the multi award-winning theatre company Breach, which creates politically engaged shows telling real-life stories.
Tzen Sam is a doctoral student in English who is writing her thesis on Ibsen and serving as Research Assistant on the project.
Introduction & production by the contributors
