About Norrländsk Information

In 1997, the performance, theater and art project NORRLÄNDSK INFORMATION was carried out together with Nic Langendoen, Umeå, and Mats Wikström, Luleå.

Other participants included actors from the county theaters in Västernorrland, Västerbotten and Norrbotten, as well as Ögonblicksteatern, Umeå.
Other involved were, for example, the theater line at Burträsk Folk High School, the dance line at Arvidsjaurs gymnasium, an amateur theater group in Saxnäs. A total of 21 performances were shown in 15 locations in Norrland from Gävle to Haparanda.
Total theater was my basic idea when I planned the project in 1996 and wrote down ideas and scripts for the performance.
Photography, objects, theater, performance, sound, film, everything would be accommodated in an unpredictable successively completed tour. Everything from hits to more or less scandalous low water marks then lined up the journeys. At the premiere at Härnösands Teater, most things were included, but the more the tour progressed, the more it was peeled off, until at the end in Umeå there was no more than a minimalist core performance left.
The main number was the performance where Mats Wikström recited a poem massing behind a lectern, where I climbed in a metal stand applied to a living spruce, and where Nic Langendoen performed unique sounds from microphone-taped objects.
At the inauguration of a new culture house in Skogsnäs was the biggest success, with audiences of all ages who almost sat on our knees and where children the next day ran around and balded our mantra in the performance: "It is far between the farms…"
At an evening performance in Vilhelmina Folkets Hus, we were delighted by a spectator who several times stood up as a self-appointed interpreter for the audience. When Mats Wikström incessantly repeated the words "It's far…" and when I went into close combat with a spruce to the sound of a hooked CD, he asked us: "Stop! We've heard that now! It's childish! ”
No pressure was present but Mats Wikström took a photo of the audience afterwards. Häcklaren explained his move by saying that he thought it was all about a lecture in modern forestry. He had seen the poster with the text Norrländsk Information over a picture of three men out on a clear-cut.
At Burträsk Folkhögskool, it was difficult to forget our performance, rumor had it that the school's theater line a little later put up a funny paraphrase of our performance.
On the Swedish flag day in Gällivare, we appeared in a dark timbered room with too low a ceiling so we had to leave the tree at an angle. On the whole, we felt very depressed or low because of the atmosphere in the room.
We counted a total of five visitors, three of whom had gone wrong and left after a while, one was a representative of the organizer and the fifth was a young man who happened to come in at the end of the show.
He was very excited and thought it should be shown more by such different things. Mats Wikström wrote a note in the hotel lobby the morning after and apologized to the people in Gällivare.
In Skellefteå, where we collaborated with the scenography school, the local newspaper wrote a very appreciative article. At the southernmost point of our journey, at Scott's theater in Gävle, we initially extremely radically aimed the spotlight at the audience instead of at ourselves. In return, we got the audience against us.
When Mats Wikström could not be with that time, the Gävle-based performance artist Annicka Erixån jumped in and got, in my opinion, a particularly passionate contact with the ever-present Christmas tree.
The Christmas tree was transported on the roof of our tour bus and was replaced regularly due to limited lifespan. At one point I remember that we appeared with a completely needleless spruce, possibly it was at the last minimalist show in Umeå.
It was also perhaps the best, where Karin Larsson from Ögonblicksteatern intensively recited the short play I wrote, and where Mats Wikström, after lying and concentrating before the performance as in a coma, pulled out the most persistent of "It's faaaaaar between the farms…".

Jan K Persson