A multi-national theatre company is bringing a trilogy of shows about the perils of European conflict to the children - and adults - of Ireland
IT IS A little like listening in on traumatic stories from long-lost cousins, watching parts of the three shows that New International Encounter (NIE) multinational theatre company are performing in Ireland this month. You are surprised by the emotional connection you feel and disorientated by the realisation that people can and do survive tragic, unjust experiences foisted upon them by wars and ethnic conflicts.
"We made My Long Journey Homejust after the war in former Yugoslavia," says Kjell Moberg, Norwegian founder, director and actor in NIE. The play tells the story of a Hungarian boy who was taken to fight on the eastern front in the second World War, was lost in Russia for 53 years and returned home to a hero's welcome in 1999.
Moberg and Eva, his Czech wife and NIE co-founder, "felt very strongly about what happened in this war, yet to make a show about a war that had just finished didn't seem right, so we decided to give the story some perspective by setting it in the second World War".
Past Half Remembered(focusing on a woman whose life spans the period of the Soviet Union) and The End of Everything Ever(the story of a six-year-old Jewish girl whose family send her from Germany to live in England on the Kindertransporttrains during the second World War) are the other two shows in the trilogy that will be performed at Baboró International Arts Festival for Children in Galway next week. One of the trilogy, The End of Everything Ever, is also at the Ark as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival's family season. The three shows are aimed at those aged 11 and over, and the treatment of such serious themes, for older children and teenagers, is a challenging and unusual choice for children's theatre.
"There were so many stories about people lost in central Europe as wars and revolutions swept through these countries, so we decided to look through the newspapers and find true stories that we could use," says Moberg. "We also try to make our stories European so that they are beyond national boundaries."
The shows are performed mainly in English but with other languages woven into the dialogue. "We try to come as close as possible to our audiences, so we use the languages of the countries as much as possible," says Eva Moberg, who performs in Norwegian, Czech and Serbo-Croat as well as English. Other actors use German and French too.
A strong sense of playfulness often emerges from the multi-linguistic nature of the performances. "One of our aims is that it really doesn't matter what language you are speaking, people can still understand you and follow the story," says Eva Moberg.
European folk music forms another layer, as the accordions, violins and percussion instruments played by the actors sound almost like another language. Humour is also used - as it is in life - to pull people back from the dark thoughts and feelings that might arise from such first-hand experiences of wars.
So do people from different parts of Europe react differently to the shows? Kjell Moberg says: "When we performed The End of Everything Everin Germany, there was a man who kept coming back to see the show again and again, and after a while we spoke to him and he said: 'It's my story. I became a soldier and lost my family and it took me three to four years to find them again.' "
Eva Moberg adds that there is a better understanding of the Kindertransport(on which Jewish families paid for the safe passage of their children to England during the second World War) in Germany.
"Sometimes, we have a quiet time after the show so that people can let out their emotions. It's not our goal to be therapeutic, but we find that it happens sometimes," she says. "It's important for all of us to understand our past because that's how we understand our present. But also it's important to know that these things are happening again. Children are getting lost in conflict zones even today."
NIE WAS FOUNDED by Eva and Kjell Moberg in 2001 when they invited a group of actors from different European countries to partake in a summer project in Mšeno, Norway.
"We wanted to bring together people who had different national and cultural backgrounds and who had different theatrical training," says Kjell Moberg. "We don't write a script for our plays, we devise them with music, singing and dialogue. Also, we follow Peter Brook's idea of 'poor theatre' in that we have simple sets and the actors are at the centre of the performance."
Currently, there are 12 cast members of the company, from Norway, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Belgium and France. "We have added some people since we started, and no one has left yet, so that is a good sign," says Kjell Moberg. "One of the central ideas of our work is the experience of being a foreigner and not being a foreigner, so although we have offices in Norway and Cambridge in England, we don't want to have a theatre building - so we tour for up to 200 days a year."
Conscious that his own country of origin is not in the European Union, Kjell says that this is his project for peace.
"We believe that not everything reflects our national identities and that we can develop a European identity," he says. "One of our central aims is to have a free form of working and be a theatre beyond borders."
NIE will perform The End of Everything Everin the Ark, Dublin, Fri-Sun. The NIE trilogy ( My Long Journey Home, Past Half Remembered and The End of Everything Ever, all for age 11 and upwards) is on Oct 16, 17 and 18 respectively at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, as part of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children. www.baboro.ie. See also www.nie-theatre.com
Baboró Snapshots
Lali Morris and her team at Baboró's International Arts Festival for Children in Galway deserve high praise for this year's diverse, exciting programme. Now in its 12th year, the festival includes 10 theatre and dance shows, family concerts from popular American singer Tom Chapin, storytelling sessions and author readings.
Highlights include the NIE trilogyand Schaf!( Sheep!), an opera for children aged five and over, from Schnawwl, of Nationaltheater Mannheim in Germany.
Italy is the country in the spotlight this year, with a musical show for babies and toddlers ( I Colori dell 'Acqua, from La Baracca), a look at family life ( Storia di una famiglia) and a tale about a wolf and a goat, both from Compagnia Rodisio.
