Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.10.2017, Síða 19

19 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 19 — 2017
A new Icelandic play, ‘Guð Blessi Ísland,’ unpacks the
social and cultural aspects of Iceland that brought
down the economy nearly ten years ago. There’s plen-
ty of blame to go around, but as yet another round
of early elections looms closer, the question arises:
Have we even learned anything?
In the wake of the October 2008 financial
crash, the Special Investigation Commis-
sion (SIC) was tasked with trying to assess
why exactly it had happened. The report
they would end up releasing in April 2010
was a massive, multi-volume analysis that
assigned a spectrum of blame across the
board, from financiers to elected officials.
Ultimately, while a number of bankers were
found culpable and sentenced to prison, no
Icelandic politician has been found to have
any legal responsibility in the crash. This
does not mean they didn’t have any moral
culpability though, and as new revelations
on current Prime Minister Bjarni Benedikts-
son’s financial dealings just before the crash
are becoming a lightning rod for criticism
this campaign season, the crash is perhaps
more relevant now than it has been in years.
Þorleifur Örn Arnarsson and Mikael Tor-
fason set about the ambitious task of mak-
ing a play out of the SIC report, entitled ‘Guð
Blessi Ísland.’ The title means “God Bless
Iceland,” and is a reference to a now-infa-
mous televised address made by then-Prime
Minister Geir H. Haarde to the nation just
after the banks collapsed in 2008. The play
is an attempt to address what got us to that
point, but also raises interesting questions
regarding our collective responsibility, and
the cultural and social aspects that contrib-
uted to the crisis.
"This play isn't about what happened
after the crash; it's about what happened
before,” Þorleifur tells us. “You go on stage
with your problem, which is: where do you
start? In a system of corruption going back
decades and generations, where do you be-
“We're living, globally, in times of extreme
change. It has dark sides, but it also
has incredible possibilities.”
Theatre Of The Absurd
Words: Paul Fontaine Photos: Rut Sigurðardóttir
Elections 2017
A new play looks back on what led us to the crash, and to the farce we find ourselves in now