Vesturport

Last updated
Vesturport
Formation18 August 2001;21 years ago (2001-08-18)
TypeTheatre group
Location
Website vesturport.com

Vesturport is an Icelandic theatre group, founded on 18 August 2001. [1] The group has performed plays in the United States, Europe and Australia. In 2011, it received the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities for its complete work, innovative character and originality. [2] [3]

Contents

Overview

On the day that the theatre group was founded, the play Discopigs was performed in Reykjavík. Over the next three years the group performed the plays Key around the neck, Titus and Mr. Man. [1] Its first performance outside of Iceland was Romeo and Juliet, on 18 November 2004 in Playhouse Theatre, London. [4] Romeo and Juliet was subsequently shown in Germany, Poland, Norway and Finland. [5] In 2004 the group premiered the Icelandic play Brim and it received the Icelandic Gríman award for the best theatre script. [6] On 30 April 2004 the group premiered the first theatre play of Víkingur Kristjánsson, Shopping mall shattered. [7] In 2008 the group premiered the plays Together and Love in Reykjavík City Theatre and Dubbeldelush in Akureyri Theatre. On 15 October the group premiered the play Woyzeck in the Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn. [8] A year later the group premiered the play Metamorphosis in Tasmania in a collaboration with Lyric Hammersmith. [9] The group then collaborated with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis to compose music for the play Faust, [10] with planned performances in Berlin, Hamburg and London. [11] In 2010 the group received favorable criticism from the New York Times for the play Metamorphosis, which increased the popularity of the group. [12] [13] A year later the group started collaborating with Tony-award winner Robin de Levita on Metamorphosis, Romeo and Juliet , Loce the Musical, The Brothers Karamazov , and Mad Alice, with planned performances in the United States. [14]

Europe Theatre Prize

In 2011, the group was one of the recipients of the XII Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, in Saint Petersburg, with the following motivation:

Established in 2001, it is a theatre company. Its founders, Gísli Örn Gardarsson, Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir, and Ingvar E. Sigurðsson, are three actors and Vestuport theatre has quickly established itself as one of Iceland’s most inventive theatre and film companies. Known for innovative productions that challenge traditional performance text, the Reykjavik-based ensemble has produced three films and eleven theatre works in just seven years and has been touring all over Europe and has also collaborated with famous artists such as Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. [15]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Vesturport Story". Vesturport. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  2. "XIV EDIZIONE". Premio Europa per il Teatro (in Italian). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  3. Billington, Michael (20 April 2011). "Europe theatre prize: Peter Stein seethes and Vesturport vaults". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  4. "Romeo and Juliet: Love is in the Air". thisistheatre.com. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  5. "Romeo & Juliet". Vesturport. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  6. "Handhafar Grímuverðlauna 2004" [2004 Griman Award Winners]. www.griman.is (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  7. "Shopping Mall Shattered". Vesturport. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  8. "US debut of Iceland's Vesturport Theatre's Production of Woyzeck Features Original Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis". ANTI-. 28 August 2008. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011.
  9. Kidd, Briony (31 March 2009). "Metamorphosis | Lyric Hammersmith / Vesturport". Australian Stage. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  10. Billington, Michael (3 October 2010). "Faust". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  11. "Vesturport og Nick Cave gera nýja leikgerð af Faust" [Vesturport and Nick Cave Create a New Adaptation of Faust]. Visir (in Icelandic). 3 July 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  12. Rooney, David (2 December 2010). "Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' at Brooklyn Academy - Review". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  13. "Ameríka opnast fyrir Vesturport" [America Opens for Vesturport]. Visir (in Icelandic). 4 December 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  14. Gans, Andrew (9 February 2011). "Vesturport Theatre Group and Robin de Levita Hope to Bring Mad Alice, Love the Musical to the U.S." Playbill. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  15. "Catalogue XIV edition - Europe Theatre Prize" (PDF). premioeuropa.org. p. 31.