WE ALL START AS STRANGERS

Osynliga Teatern developed a new work for Side-Show in Nässjö, entitled We all start as strangers. The work was shown on the 14th and 15th of October at “Pinnen” in Nässjö.

We all start as strangers was an interactive theatre- and sound experience created especially for Nässjö by Osynliga Teatern, in collaboration with inhabitants of Nässjö  and participating students from Nässjö Kulturskola’s theatre group.

The audience was taken on a journey through the old chair factory in Nässjö, a place with echoes of Nässjö’s past as a manufacturing town. Today, the building is used for a variety of purposes, but its lack of a current fixed identity offers a potential for creating a different experience. From within the many rooms of the factory the audience would enter a series of different memories, as recalled by themselves or by those they met there.

The performance was a sound- and theatre experience where the audience was given instructions through headphones, as well as direct instructions from the participants.

We all start as strangers opened up the different stories that we all carry with us throughout our lives, and encouraged the audience to take part in experiences from lives that exist alongside their own. We all start as strangers offered different ways of accessing and perceiving one’s own memories, to enter one’s own stories as well as those of others from a new perspective.

Osynliga Teatern visited Nässjö for the first time in October 2015, and began creating a new work specifically for the town. Above all, they allowed their many meetings with people who live in Nässjö to give shape to the work. In the making of We all start as strangers, Osynliga Teatern collaborated with three co-creators, either born in Nässjö or recently arrived there to make Nässjö their home. These co-creators gave shape to and took part in the experience offered to the visitors.

More about Osynliga Teatern

Tomas Rajnai and Jens Nielsen initiated Osynliga Teatern (translated as ‘Invisible Theatre’) in 2012 whilst attending the radio course at Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. With Osynliga Teatern they produce inter-disciplinary, site-specific exhibitions and artworks. The aspiration is to inspire visitors to create new personal relationships with architecture and their surroundings.

Their works do not only focus on displaying interior/urban spaces and soundscapes, but also aim for visitors to discover impressions from within themselves, encouraging a will to act within a constructed world. The works call on the visitor to step into a world where reality, the perceived and imagination become interconnected.

Osynliga Teatern’s works have been shown at Färgfabriken, Stockholm (2015), Weld, Stockholm (2015), Reykjavik Arts Festival (2015), Copenhagen International Theatre Festival/ Metropolis (2015), Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm (2014, 2013 and 2016). They have recently been developing a new project in collaboration with Västmanslands Theatre and Swedish National Radio, and are premiering a new work at the Royal Dramatic Theatre on October 1st 2016.

www.osynligateatern.se

Nässjö Konsthall

Nässjö Konsthall, with Head of Nässjö Konsthall Lennart Alves, was Side-show’s partnering organization in Nässjö. They contributed with local knowledge; contacts with local organisations, individuals and local audiences, and provided additional support and resources in the production. Nässjö Konsthall is a municipal art gallery showing exhibitions with both Swedish and international artists. In addition to their exhibtions, they offer a wide range of programs with artist talks, cultural evenings, lectures, concerts and workshops. Find out more about Nässjö Konsthall here.