Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2007, Side 22

B6_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 05_2007_INTERVIEW/THEATRE
Since it was founded in 2001, Reykjavík-based
independent theatre company Vesturport has
been known for being innovative, unrestrained
and provocative, never afraid to take on new
challenges and impress the audience with
breathtaking stunts and dramatic perfor-
mances. After starting out in a small work-
shop at Vesturgata in downtown Reykjavík,
the group has moved on to bigger territories
and today celebrates an incredible success
internationally.
As always, Vesturport is working on new
ways to satisfy the demanding theatre audi-
ence. The company is creating a new produc-
tion of the popular rock opera Jesus Christ
Superstar, featuring some of Iceland’s leading
actors and rockstars, a new film is in pre-pro-
duction and plenty of ideas for new plays are in
development. When Grapevine sat down with
actor and director Björn Hlynur Haraldsson to
discuss Vesturport’s future projects, the group
had just come back from Amsterdam, where
they performed four shows of Georg Büchner’s
Woyzeck at the Het Muziektheater.
Vesturport’s production of Woyzeck first
premiered in the London Barbican Theatre in
2005, with original music and lyrics by Nick
Cave and Warren Ellis. To say the least, the
show was a major hit among the audience
as well as the critics, and after bringing the
play to Icelandic audiences they returned to
London for a rerun.
This young touring ensemble numbers 12
members who, in collaboration, are constantly
trying to create something unique and differ-
ent and finding new ways to do things, taking
on the role of actors, directors, writers, pro-
ducers or all of these at once. They’ve taken
their project to festivals all around Europe and
been invited to stage their plays at some of
the most established European theatres.
Asked what he thinks is the key factor
behind Vesturport’s success, Björn Hlynur
replies that there is no real trick but that by
being determinate, energetic and believing in
the projects they’ve been producing they’ve
managed to get where they are today.
“We are a group consisting of people who
all think of themselves as the one who knows
best. We are a bunch of divas. Everyone has
to have a say. It can make you crazy, but then
you realize, that’s just the way you want things
to be. I think that this mix is a big part of what
drives us.”

A Group With a Vision
Vesturport is a group with a vision. Their
Myspace reads that the aim is to find every
project’s own voice, style, time and space
without forcing a play into a space where
its story and characters will not be fully un-
derstood. For that sincere approach, they’ve
triumphed, gained an incredible following
and are today renowned for their original
and often unusual productions of classic
masterpieces such as Franz Kafka’s Meta-
morphosis, and Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. They’ve also managed to produce two
successful independent twin-films, Children
and Parents by Ragnar Bragason, which have
been screened at film festivals abroad, as well
as receiving an international award for the
play Surf by Jón Atli Jónasson. By being both
inventive and energetic, in only a couple of
years Vesturport has managed to appeal to
the broad public on both sides of the North
Atlantic and, with numerous unconventional
adaptations, has transformed the Icelandic
theatre landscape.
“We’re just trying to create something
we would like to go see ourselves. The old
cliché, really. Ever since the beginning we
were clever enough not to pin down any
rules for the company. Our manifesto was
to have no manifesto. I think that you have to
be allowed to get tired of a certain format. If,
for example, I were to produce a show with
bungees, acrobatics, lots of smoke and explo-
sions, then I have to be allowed to get bored
of that format next year. The more variety
the artist has to show, the more interesting
it is. For example, I have often been irritated
by how predictable theatre can be.”
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Asked why they decided the next project to
be a famous musical, he explains:
“A year ago, we were talking about do-
ing something else, something we had never
tried before. We had for example an idea of
a children’s play and I had also always wanted
to produce a musical. Jesus Christ Superstar
is in my opinion by far the best musical ever
written. The music is great from beginning to
end and few people can deny that the story
is interesting.
“I gathered people that had the same at-
titude towards musicals as I do. Börkur Jónsson
(Vesturport’s stage designer), for example,
thought I had lost my mind when I told him
about this idea and I was sure that all the
singers and musicians I wanted to include in
the project would punch me in the face for
even considering them,” he adds.
The line-up is bound to attract a mixed
crowd. Starring Krummi, the singer of hard
rock-band Mínus, as Jesus himself and Jenni
from Brain Police taking on the role of Judas,
it also has Bjarni Hall singer of band Jeff Who?
as well as actors Ingvar E. Sigurðsson, Ólafur
Darri Ólafsson, Ólafur Egill Ólafsson and Lára
Sveinsdóttir are in the leading roles. To guar-
antee a quality, hard-hitting rock show, two
other members of Mínus, guitarist Bjarni and
drummer Bjössi, were hired to arrange their
version of the music.
Jesus Christ Superstar is scheduled to
premiere in the middle of July. When asked
where the musical will be staged, Björn Hlynur
becomes quite mysterious:
“All I can say is that it will be a very unusual
setting, and will in all likelihood not be located
inside a conventional theatre,” he says.
As mentioned before, Vesturport’s mem-
bers have plenty of ideas on how to spend the
forthcoming months. In addition to the rock
show, Björn Hlynur is writing a new play for The
Akureyri Theatre, which he will direct next fall,
a movie based on the play Surf by Jón Atli is
in the making and further theatre projects are
being laid out. This active and uninhibited mix
of actors, directors and playwrights has already
proven that a small independent company can
do whatever-the-hell they feel like it, if the
attitude is right. By now, this growing theatre
company stops at nothing, having triumphed
in Britain, being hyped-up in Iceland and is set
to conquer the rest of the world.
Vesturport: “A Bunch of Divas”
Text by Steinunn Jakobsdóttir Photo by Skari
Ever since the beginning
we were clever enough
not to pin down any
rules for the company.
Our manifesto was to
have no manifesto.