An interview with Eugenio Barba, Director of ODIN TEATRET

conducted by Carran Waterfield, performer and Artistic Director of TRIANGLE on 12 June 1998 at the University of Warwick.

Transcribed by Carran Waterfield © 1998

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Has it been a struggle in Holstebro? I know you have these ‘open houses’

where people come in from the local community and beyond to share the

work but have you always been accepted locally?

When we arrived in Holstebro in ‘66 the public reacted very violently against us. We

were a Norwegian group - a group of foreigners and what we were doing they could not

understand in ’66 there was very little text besides we were a company of actors

coming from all the different Scandinavian countries each of them speaking their own

language and so the Danish spectators could not understand perfectly if it was

Swedish Finnish or Norwegian.

So there was this partial break of convention. People went to theatre to understand the

text and this was not the case (with us) And there was a completely different use of the

space: we were not using a stage; actors were mixing together with the spectators the

fact the story was told through very affective communication - songs and movement

and actions; it was a very dynamic dramaturgy. The spectators were not used to it and

they got simply scared and insecure. So all these people in this small town which had

been very isolated and who had never seen theatre before reacted and said: ‘Why

should we pay money for this?’, even when it was a very small amount of money. So

for many years most of the syndicates were against us and it was very interesting to

see how - the Labour people especially – against us even though the politicians who

had invited us to Holstebro were the Labour Party.

But then slowly things started to change - partially because we became known outside

Holstebro and therefore because of patriotic feelings they said: ‘Oh yes they (the

ODIN) made Holstebro known. Secondly, because we started doing many activities in

Holstebro, and at that moment we were the main tourist attraction. Many young actors,

directors were - maybe thirty, forty, fifty, two hundred were coming and spending many

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days there, so we became not only a cultural factor but also an economical factor. So

many many firms began to be interested in us and they began to even help us

economically not because they were artistically supportive but simply because there

was a sort of economical interest in all of this.

And now after 32 years in Holstebro, I mean we have a very very powerful position and

can do what we want there on projects and we can have all the institutions with us not

only the cultural institutions. We can have the churches and decide to do a huge

concert where all beliefs are participating: Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants,

Shinto, Hindus, Buddhists - any church will open to us a venue if we want to have a

concert. Or if we want the army there are barracks there that can participate in our

events and also even soldier to participate so things are changing.

But it takes having a very particular policy of seduction from our side because it was

not so much dependant on the artistic results. There are not a lot of local people going

to see our productions but mostly they consider us normal and efficient workers. At

seven o’clock in the morning we go out to work and we work eight, ten, twelve hours

and we do a good piece of work. They don’t understand it maybe - but they think from

a craftsmanship point of view, we are doing good work and these are values which, in

a small rural place (like Holstebro), are still acknowledged.

Carran Waterfield Summer 1998.