Altamira Studio Theatre (Denmark)

I have worked at Odin Teatret for several years as assistant director, because I recognised the masters I needed. In our digital world, the anthropological values of the theatre craft have been forgotten. Long-lasting processes and relationships are socially isolating and not recognised. The choice to follow the same masters for a long time is considered culturally and artistically anachronistic and a lack of autonomy.

I lead an independent theatre group that works within the framework of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium, literally in the shadow of Odin Teatret. I feel warmer in this shadow than elsewhere. Odin Teatret, as a milieu and with its variety of initiatives, is still my main source of inspiration. But I fight every day with the danger of forgetting my own needs. What do I bring with me in my own work from the practices and the values of Odin Teatret? Techniques? Symbols? Ideology? How can I transgress them in order to maintain them alive within me? How does one stay close to such a model and at the same time build one’s own independence? How do I keep drinking for a long time from the same source without losing the awareness of who I am or the ability to recognise my own path? How can I avoid my privileged situation becoming a cage?

The apprenticeship of a director at Odin Teatret teaches the difficult science of transgression:  how to distinguish principles from forms, becoming conscious of the former and going beyond the latter.