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THEATER
Inspired by Stanislaw Lem’s novel “Solaris” and Andrej Tarkovskij’s film adaptation.
By and including: Fredrik Hannestad, Saila Hyttinen, Anders Mossling, Per Platou, Solveig Laland Mohn, Håkon Mathias Vassvik, Jakob Oredsson, Enpen Klouman Høiner, Adam Manthey Steen, Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk, Vilde Jønland
Work Productions
Black Box Theatre
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Stanislaw Lem’s science fiction novel “Solaris” from 1961 has been the starting point for a number of film and stage productions over the years. Andrej Tarkovski’s film from 1972 is perhaps the best-known film adaptation, and theaters around the world are constantly staging new shows based on the novel. In autumn 2021, for example, you could see a stage version of “Solaris” at Det Norske Teatret. When Verk Produksjoner now creates a performance inspired by Lem’s book and Tarkovskij’s film, it is not experienced as a very original artistic choice, but it will at least be part of a long “Solaris” tradition. And their show has a lot going for it, even if it never gets the roof of the Black Box lifted.
It is important to emphasize that Verk Produksjoner is inspired by “Solaris”. Anyone who goes to the Black Box to see them perform a stage version of the famous novel will be disappointed at worst, surprised at best. The most famous moments in Lem’s original story are included, but these come piecemeal and divided and are told quite soberly by the actors, so that we can never really live into what they are telling.
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Kelvin in space
The story of the psychologist Kelvin, who travels into space to a space station on the planet Solaris, only becomes a basis for the theater ensemble’s own texts and stories. These stories are about the theatre, about believing in something, about which stories are important to us, and about how we, both in art and everyday life, are able to create something out of nothing. Whatever it is, whatever it may be – something that is also pondered over in this performance.
Verk’s “Solaris” has become a philosophical journey that draws lines between the forces of the Solaris universe and the forces that govern actors’ lives and work. The actors apparently talk about their own personal experiences they have had during their studies, in various theater projects, or on the private front. Whether the stories are biographical or not is hard to say. But the fact that you sit in the hall and wonder a little about just that, precisely illuminates some of the show’s themes; namely that the audience must believe what they see and hear on stage, and the actors themselves must believe what they are doing in order to appear truthful. While all the example stories the actors offer appear vivid, believable and close to the cinema, the audience connects less with the story from “Solaris”.
Verk Produksjoner, Stanislav Lem and Solaris
With the actors’ stories in mind, it is natural to wonder if it is because they themselves do not believe enough in what they are retelling from the novel. That it does not resonate enough in themselves. It is sad, in any case, that the show’s source of inspiration and basis of reference never gets to shine as brightly as it might have been intended.
The parallels that are drawn between the actor’s life and the science fiction universe are interesting, but they are many, and the whole thing eventually goes round and round without getting anywhere. The Solaris universe’s effect on the people on the space station becomes a central point in the performance. In the Solaris universe, new people are created from memories like the existing people they carry with them. People who do not exist on Earth can suddenly come back to life on Solaris. For example, Kelvin meets his late wife again, to whom he gets to say goodbye again, and thus one can read “Solaris” as a story about processing grief.
At Verk Produksjoner, however, the focus is on our ability to create something to believe in, and we constantly hear new variations on how we (and not just actors) constantly live in a borderland between fiction and reality. But summa summarum it is also only what we get. Verk Produksjoner doesn’t come around much anymore, and that’s sad, because I actually wish this show had made me a little wiser and that I’d gotten a new look at myself and other people.
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Håkon Mathias Vassvik, Saila Hyttinen, Anders Mossling and Espen Klouman Høiner
For those who saw Verk’s previous performance at Black Box, “Opening Night” in 2021, “Solaris” can be experienced as a kind of continuation of the theme of this performance. There, too, there was a reflection on the essence of the theatre, and Håkon Mathias Vassvik, who stood alone on stage, told apparently first-hand stories from acting life in such a way that you could really feel the love for the theater blossoming in the stage room. In “Solaris”, Vassvik has several actors by his side who are all well-known names in the Verk context: Saila Hyttinen, Solveig Laland Mohn, Anders Mossling and Espen Klouman Høiner. And they all have the same ability to tell compelling and sometimes funny stories about acting and theater life. I only wish they had managed to convey the Solaris universe in an equally vivid and nuanced way. It is as if the theater company has not quite dared to take this production all the way out, and although the choreography, costumes, scenography, light and sound design help to create the illusion of something strange and “universe-like”, this becomes the most atmospheric effects. For those who need a philosophical journey in the darkest part of autumn, “Solaris” can still be a nice, but perhaps not life-changing, trip.
The performance is part of the scholarship project of Fredrik Hannestad and Saila Hyttinen and is a collaborative production between KhiO and Black Box theater