Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2008, Blaðsíða 23

Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2008, Blaðsíða 23
REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 16—2008 | 23 Tilveran Restaurant – tel. (+354) 565-5250 – Linnetstíg 1, Hafnarörður Tilveran Restaurant in the heart of Hafnarörður Fresh sh every day in a iendly atmosphere. We don´t serve foreigners... Only 45 min. drive from Reykjavík is Eyrarbakki, a beautiful village by the south coast, where foreigners have been feeling at home since the 9th century AD. So welcome to Rauða húsið, a restaurant that makes you feel at home. because to us - nobody is foreign. Tel: (+354) 483-3330, Eyrarbakki - South coast Licensing and registration of travel- related services The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents, as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres. Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet website. Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the Icelandic Tourist Board. List of licenced Tour Operators and Travel Agencies on: visiticeland.com EXPECT HANG OVERS... THE BIGGEST CLUB IN DOWNTOWN REYKJAVIK. LIVE MUSIC EVERY WEEKEND. WWW.NASA.IS INTERvIEW BY BeRguR eBBI BeneDIKTSSon — pHoTo BY gAS The entry hall of the Icelandic National Theatre’s Smíðaverk- stæði, is filled with a Shakespearean props; armor, swords and Elizabethian furniture, are scattered all over the room. The theatre-hall where the play is delivered has no props at all. It is actually more like a slaughterhouse with varnished floors and plastic covered seats. The idea behind the prop- filled entry hall versus the stripped down stage is not a co- incidence. “When people walk in they can sit down in the entry hall and have a beer surrounded by all these props that re- mind them of a typical Macbeth production. But when they go into the stage hall they are supposed to be stripped of everything except the play itself,” explains director Stefán Hallur Stefánsson violating a long held believe that uttering the word “Macbeth” during production will curse the play. MACBETh: AlSo CRAZY oFFSTAGE “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth,” says Tobias. “I don’t think there is a curse. I think mishaps that take place when the play is set up have more to do with the ego of the actor playing the main role. The role is very demanding and the actor playing it has to become a maniac in some ways and that can create problems,” he says and grins, perhaps because it is director Stefán Hallur who also takes on the role of the mad Scottish king and murderer. Maybe Tobias has a point though. Dur- ing our conversation, Stefán Hallur has problems staying still. He walks the floors and instead of answering questions in a calm manner, he delivers short dramatic monologues about the production. “Our goal with this production was to do something more than deliver text. We want to show rather than tell. It is supposed to be driven by action. Tobias and I examined the original English text by Shakespeare carefully and tried to find the core in the story. The dialogue was then made out of three different Icelandic translations and the outcome is supposed to be focused on the story instead of the words,” says Stefán Hallur and points out that a delivery of the origi- nal text can sometimes take more than four hours in perfor- mance but this version will be finished in about an hour and a half. “We are not dissembling the play because it is 400 years old and somebody had to do it, or because we think we are young and hip and Shakespeare is old and boring. On the contrary our goal was to show respect to the storyline and do our best to deliver that,” he adds. STuDIED DICTAToRS So the play is not modernized or put into Icelandic context? “No it’s not,” says Tobias. “Still we’ve studied certain things that took place long after the play was written, like the re- lationships some Eastern-European dictators had with their wifes,” he says and names Ceaucescu and Milosevic as ex- amples but their wives, like Macbeth’s, played a big role in their abuse of power. “The text is not altered to put a light on contemporary events but it is so brilliantly written by Shake- speare that it does it anyway,” says Stefán Hallur and points out that the play might put recent developments in Reykjavík city politics in a new perspective. What about non-Icelandic speaking theatre-goers? Is there something in the production for them? “I think this play is more accessible to non-Icelandic speakers than many other shows in Iceland. We use stage-craft in an authentic way and at least I will enjoy the play very well though I don’t speak the language,” says Tobias and chuckles. Macbeth: Brutal and Direct INFo Macbeth is shown on the Smíðaverkstæðið stage of the National Theatre in November.

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