Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2015, Qupperneq 21

ing a rock star. You’ve practised the song,
everybody knows the song, and you can
start over if you have to. And then in be-
tween songs you’re allowed to say what-
ever, you can take up all the space you
need. There is this incredible freedom.
EÓ: I agree.
Let it go
You mention the pause as being a
kind of “window,” Erna. You used
the same metaphor, Halldóra,
when you accepted a Gríma [at the
Icelandic Theatre Awards] earlier
this year. You said that when one
is presented with a window one
has to use it to say what one feels
has to be said. Are there things
you feel you have a responsibility
to express given your positions or
prestige?
EÓ: When I realised that dance was not
just about moving your body, that it was
possible to use it to express everything
that one wanted to say, it became really
important to me to pursue it. Because
I’m so bad at talking and at expressing
myself with words. So this was my way.
HG: For me it’s that as I get older I’m re-
alising more and more where I need to
shoulder responsibility. It’s also because
I’ve been raising a bunch of kids, and
I’ve been learning to teach them to take
responsibility and also learning when I
need to step in and when not to. I feel like
those things go hand-in-hand. But I also
have a very strong need to do things that
are just for fun. Just nonsense.
EÓ: You have to have both.
HG: And I just say: The more nonsense
the better. There is so much truth in sil-
liness, so much unexpected truth that
sneaks out. And if you don’t allow your-
self to get a little mixed up and mess
around a bit, you’ll stop surprising your-
self.
EÓ: Absolutely.
HG: A year ago I decided my motto
would be: More nonsense. Don’t take ev-
erything so seriously.
EÓ: Often when we’re working in
groups, the best things happen during
the coffee breaks, when everyone’s just
relaxed and goofing around.
HG: The nonsense seems like it doesn’t
come from a deep place but it does. The
truth seeps through.
EÓ: I think that once you start working
with people who allow themselves to be
silly, you get this feeling of freedom. You
just realise suddenly: Yes, this is allowed.

Shake it off
The two of you are working
together in a upcoming produc-
tion of Njáls Saga which will be a
collaborative effort between the
Reykjavík City Theatre and the
Icelandic Dance Company this
fall.
EÓ: Yes. It’s not going to be Njála by the
book, more like speculations out from
the text.
HG: Whatever speaks to us.
EÓ: I think that could be quite interest-
ing.
HG: And I think it varies quite a lot what
Njála inspires in each and every person.
EÓ: Yes, exactly.
HG: And maybe there’s some freedom
in not letting the Njáls Saga specialists
tell us what’s in Njáls Saga. There’s al-
ready been a lot of that. So this is more
like, where does Njáls Saga turn on our
creative juices? And isn’t that also com-
pletely valid? Instead of always just be-
ing on a strict literary level. To see what
other parts of the body it speaks to.
So the performers will be very
involved in making up the show?
HG: Yes, that’s the idea. When you go
into this kind of project, you first realise
how incredibly little you know about it,
and kind of want to talk about it as little
as possible because you’re supposed to
be an expert before you even begin.
EÓ: I feel that when one does this kind
of project, it’s most often because one is
curious, and, yes, maybe doesn’t know
all that much about it. So it becomes like
a research project. Often something that
one is a little bit afraid of.
Njáls Saga is a very exciting project,
and a little different than what the com-
pany has been a part of before. We’ve
collaborated with the theatre in the past,
but then it’s been more like musicals,
'Mary Poppins' and the like. This is a
new kind of collaboration.
HG: There’s more creative energy, some-
how.
EÓ: Yes, and everyone a part of the cre-
ative process, the actors and the dancers
are all part of that.
HG: I can’t wait.
EÓ: The process is almost more exciting
than the end result. Of course it will be
great if the result is something interest-
ing but it’s also important that the pro-
cess be something juicy.
They are so fun, these processes that
are not just about doing exactly what the
director tells you.
HG: You don’t know when you set off
what the result is going to be, you just
know that there is something you have
to get off your chest.
John, I’m only dancing
It hasn’t been all that common
recently to mix theatre together
with different art forms like
dance and music. Not on the
stages of major theatre institu-
tions in Iceland, at least. With the
exception of some musicals.
EÓ: That’s true. But there are a lot of in-
dividual artists who do cross-disciplin-
ary work. Although it seems to confuse
people and even make them angry if an
artist tries to step out of his or her main
genre. We are always trying to put things
into boxes and keep them safe in the
boxes. But the three visual artists who
we are collaborating with on the show
that will be the opening performance of
the next Reykjavík Arts Fesival, ‘FÓRN’
[“SACRIFICE”]—Gabríela Friðriksdót-
tir, Matthew Barney and Ragnar Kjar-
tansson—all of them are freely stepping
in and out of their genre. So I thought it
would be great to collaborate with them
on something that we don’t know what
to call, but for now we’re describing as a
borderline musical.
This piece ['FÓRN'] is very much
about these main rituals that we have
and what they mean to us today. And at
the same time, it is simply an ode to ar-
tistic creation.
Because it’s, well, kind of important.
Art and religion used to be very connect-
ed from the beginning, but now the two
have separated. Before, all the artforms
served different religions to make them
more powerful and fill them with spir-
it, but what if it could be the opposite?
There is so much spirit in the art itself,
and it can even save lives. I would say, at
least for me, that it saved my life to find
dance or to have found myself in dance.
When people talk about art as some kind
of worthless thing that shouldn’t be sup-
ported financially by the state, I don’t
understand it. It’s hard to understand
something like that when one has always
21The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2015

Halldóra
Geirharðsdóttir

Occupation
“I’m an actress, a director and an au-
thor. And a mother. And a wife! And
a brother and a sister and a friend. A
very good friend!"

Background
“I was born and raised in Reykjavík. I
studied music from the ages of six to
twenty—flute and saxophone. I was
an au pair for a year in Berlin when
I was 18—before the wall went down.
I played in a rock band as a teenager
until I was 22. Then I went into the-
atre school, aged 23, and have been
working in film, theatre, television,
radio, as a clown and a host of par-
ties, and as a director and author,
ever since. Most of my work is at the
City Theatre now. I’ve won some
nominations, and some awards. I’ve
been to places, and come back... I
fell into a cult once! And then came
out. I’ve fought to be happy. But I am
happy."

Education
“I’m not a professional musician now,
but I studied it—I learned improvisa-
tion, which helps with the acting!
It was the tónlistarskóli school in
Reykjavík and quit when I got preg-
nant. And then, I studied theatre.”

Upcoming Projects
“I’m working on Billy Elliot now. I
went the world with my family, you
see, and when I got back, I thought
this would an easy job... but it is the
toughest job I’ve ever taken! I have to
dance and sing and act, working with
children. I’m also rehearsing 'The
Seagull' by Chekhov, working with
a director named Yana Ross—she’s
very interesting, one of the hottest
things in Europe at the moment, as
a director. I’m very excited about it.
And of course, I’m doing 'Njáls Saga'
in the winter. I’m very good at los-
ing my child in films and theatre—it
seems to come up a lot. There’s some
tragedy in me, I think, that directors
link to."

Words by Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Photos by Saga Sig
Talk
Two creative forces take
on new roles, prepare
to shake things up
Continues on P. 22