Odin Teatret separation from NTL

Some chronological documents and statements from Odin Teatret’s Archive about the separation process and re-founding of Odin Teatret.

1) 28 March 2019

Eugenio Barbas official statement stepping down from as leader of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (NTL).

28 March 2019

On December 31, 2020, I will leave my position as director of the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium-Odin Teatret in Holstebro. The task of artistic coordinator will be assumed by Julia Varley, and from 1st January 2021 the overall responsibility will be in the hands of Per Kap Bech Jensen, the new director chosen by the Board of Directors.

We were five in 1964, myself and four youngsters rejected by the State Theatre School in Oslo, Norway, including Torgeir Wethal and Else Marie Laukvik who have remained at my side. We founded a joint-stock company and divided the shares among ourselves because the earth belongs to those who till it. We gave to our theatre the name of Odin, a Nordic god who unleashes his dark forces to destroy or give insight. We were a tiny curious and naive amateur group. We loved travelling in the realm of the dead – the history of theatre. We were convinced that we had to pay from our own pocket for the theatre we wanted to make. In silence, with Trappist rigour, we took our first steps as autodidacts towards a knowledge that also became the conquest of our difference.

In 1966 our theatre group moved to Holstebro in Denmark. Its politicians welcomed these young unknown foreign actors and – as an exception in the history of Europe – generation after generation supported them even in the early years when the population was hostile to their strange way of doing theatre. Holstebro became our homeland, here our children were born, here some of us are buried, here our wings grew.

Over the years we transformed ourselves into the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium, an international environment of initiatives in the field of the actors’ technique and the use of their craft in the community. Theatre cannot be reduced simply to a performance that can be bought with a ticket. Our profession has a dimension whose values are imponderable, but which leave deep traces: the quality of relationships, the development of a micro-culture, the practice of a social laboratory in continuous research, a daily obstinacy that is spiritual and political commitment, the ability to nourish a resilience against the wearing routine and the spirit of time.

Our laboratory opened the way to numerous activities: site specific and street performances, alternative pedagogy and pure research, sociological surveys, publication of journals and books, production of didactic films, encounters and regular exchanges with theatre groups from all over the planet, collaboration with masters of Asian and Latin American traditions and Afro-Brazilian culture. Our actors have become directors, guides for generations, forgers of adventures: “The Bridge of Winds” by Iben Nagel Rasmussen, the Transit Festival and the Magdalena Project by Julia Varley and other women in the profession, the Odin Week Festival by Roberta Carreri, the Laboratory Village of Kai Bredholt and Per Kap Jensen, the practice of a theatre of reciprocity as a cultural barter, the ISTA, the International School of Theatre Anthropology, Odin Teatret’s Living Archives, and the Festuge – the Festive Week – which theatricalises and unveils the variety of Holstebro’s subcultures.

Today the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium is deeply rooted in Holstebro’s history and its challenges in the present. Its environment includes several independent groups headed by theatre artists, scholars and start-uppers with a “laboratory” mentality and way of proceeding: to explore, through the art of the actor, new relationships and conditions so that the unforeseeable may happen.

It is time for me to leave the command, the responsibility and the burden of the 101 daily decisions to those who will keep alive the essential that I and my companions have distilled during these 56 years. I have been the director of a theatre that wanted to intervene in the surrounding reality. I followed the strategy of circles in the water. I threw a stone that I knew how and where to hurl. The circles widen, move things which are close, produce tiny invisible currents. But I who threw the stone, cannot nor do I want to determine their future.

Like a cloud I continue my journey. I am rehearsing two new performances with my Odin actors. I will continue to meet the groups of the Third Theatre. I will not give up my research on the transition from the actor’s inner space to his/her first perceptible sign in the space shared with the spectator.

I have no heirs nor a legacy to leave. My teaching is not passed on or extinguished. It evaporates. And falls as rain on the head of whom least expects it.

Eugenio Barba

2) 16 December 2020

Eugenio Barbas letter of thanks to NTL-Odin Teatret’s Board of Directors (BoD) Arne Lægård, Karoline H. Larsen, Louise Eigod Hansen, Lene Dybdal, Peter Christensen Teilmann and Søren Kjems.

16. december 2020

Kjære Arne, Karoline, Lene, Louise, Peter og Søren, kjære mine skattede bestyrelsesmedlemmer,

jeg har det vanskelig ved å uttrykke i ord min takknemlighet for det kjærlighets bånd som knytter dere til Odin Teatret og dets iherdige folk. Samarbejdet med dere har vært en gave av viten, kompetanse, faglig inspirasjon og følelsesmessig engasjement. I det øyeblikk jeg forlater mitt ansvar som leder, kan jeg ikke la være å stille et spørsmål: hvorfor har dere ofret så mye tid, tanker og energi for Holstebrodinerne? TAKK, TAKK, TAKK. Jeg er klar hvor meget jeg skylder mine bestyrelsesmedlemmer – til en og enhver av dem, helt fra de første – Christian Ludvigsen og Martin Berg.

Søren: det har vært så betryggende å ha deg ved min side i alle disse mange år med din rolige forståelsesfulle styrke og skarp analytisk blikk som dempet og overbeviste mitt impulsive gemytt.

Arne: sammen med Kai K. Nielsen, er du den politiker som har fått meg til å tro at det lar seg gjøre å skape fruktbare allianser og symbolske spor mellom den politisk/pragmatiske og den kunstnerisk/imaginære verden. Du har vært den borgmester som har besøkt vårt teater mest, og jeg tror du gjorde det fordi du, også som menneske, følte at hva som skjedde blant veggene på Særkærgård sa deg noe.

Lene: jeg ønsket ikke å ha politikere i min bestyrelse. Det var Lisbet Gormsen som overbeviste meg at det ville være klokt å forandre min holdning. Hun hadde rett. Jeg hørte imponert hver eneste gang du sa noe. Og jeg ble beveget da jeg fikk vite at du hadde stemt imot besparelsen og ditt eget parti.

Karoline, Louise, Peter: som kunstnere og kunstner-allierte har jeg nytet de nye ideer og perspektiver dere hat påført vårt teater. Viktigst: dere har klart å utvikle et betryggende tett forhold med Per på hvis skuldre hviler byrden av 40 medarbejderes innsats.

Den 27. november [2020] holdte jeg min siste tale som NTL direktør til samtlige medarbejdere. Jeg minnet dem at vårt teaterlaboratorium hadde utviklet sin kunstneriske diversitet gjennon vår spesielle arbeidskultur. Det var ikke en ideologi, teorier og credo som styret vår daglige arbejdsroutine, men en håndverkmessig bevissthet om de forpliktelser enhver av oss hadde i forhold til det arbeid vi hadde valgt. Jeg fortalte dem at jeg så optimistisk på fremtiden, både økonomisk og kunstnerisk. Jeg påskjønnet den gamle Odin kjerne som fortsatte stedig og koncentrert i disse covid-tider i full sats til å springe ut i nye initiativer med en gang virus var besejret. Samtidig kunne jeg konstatere at vi i løpet av de siste 10 år hadde klart å utdanne og støtte økonomisk en ny generasjon med flere selvstendige og annerledes kunstnere som allerede gikk sine vejer: DOO-Giuseppe Bonifati, Ikarus, Vali barneteater, Mia’s Riotous Company, Anna Stigsgård med sine originale community initiativer.

Til slutt påpekte jeg en fare: innlemmelsen av nye kunstneriske medarbejdere i NTL såfrem de ikke blir engasjert ut fra de samme faglige premisser som har styret NTL inntil nu. Vesentlig er interessen som fører en person til vårt arbejdsmiljø i Holstebro hvor de i månedsvis blir satt på prøve og absorberer noen grunnleggende prinsipper: beslutnings giennomsiktighet, like lønn, ubegrenset arbejdsdag, personlig ansvar på de lokaler som beskytter vår individuelle og felles ånd i våre daglige gjøremål, et forhold til byen de har valgt å arbejde i. Å blande mennesker som kommer fra to radikalt forskjellig arbejdskulturer kan utgjøre et Damokles sverd. Konsekvensen kan hurtig bli at det menneskelige-kunstneriske kapital som ble skapt i over halv sekel vil forvandles til en konfliktfylt og fremmedgjort miljø og vil gå i oppløsning på få måneder.

Det er, i mine øyne, den største utfordring som Per, som ansvarlig leder, og bestyrelsen står overfor.

Mere har jeg ikke å si. Personlig går jeg til verks i min nye stilling med energi og optimisme. Prøvene til Odins nye forestilling Thebes i den gule feber tid skrider fint frem, og når tidene blir normale regner jeg med å finne noen produsenter som vil pumpe noen penger inn i den. Det er gode sjanser at vi kan selge en kopi av hele Odin Teatret Arkiver til en bibliotek i Italien til en klekkelig beløp som nærmer seg en million kr. Kontaktene med det greske National Teater vil sikkert gi bonus med en gang coronavirus vil tillate det.

Jeg har startet et par prosjekter som ikke direkte er knyttet til Odin Teatret. Den ene er et Barba Varley Foundation som skal støtte «navnløse» teaterfolk og kvinner. Den er styret av andre mennesker i Italien og vil neppe kollidere med mine og Julias oppgaver på Odin Teatret.

Det andre er et tidskrift JOURNAL OF THEATRE ANTHROPOLOGY som jeg vil redigere i min fritid hvor jeg også lar Odin arkiver figurere som utgiver. Samtidig vil jeg også lave en hjemmeside om teaterantropologi.  

Nyt festlighetene, fremtiden viser gunstige trekk og vi alle på teatret gleder oss å flyve høyt takket være deres omhu og omsorg.

Jeg sier enda en gang takk, omfavner hver eneste av dere, og gleder meg til å fortsette sammen mot vårens lysere tider

Eugenio

3) June 2022

On request of Eugenio Barba, the chair of NTL’s BoD, Louise Ejgod Hansen, sent the following information to the members of NTL.

June 2022

Memorandum about OTA-Odin Teatret Archives

To people working at or connected with NTL-OT and OTA

In May 2022, many objects from the Odin Teatret Archive was transferred from Holstebro to Italy. In June, the archivist Simone Dragone left Holstebro in order to concentrate on his own academic research. These events are part of a process that has caused a lot of questions and uncertainty for the people connected to NTL-OT about the future of OTA in Holstebro. In this memorandum, the board address the current situation for OTA as well as the future of OTA in Holstebro.

History

In 2002, NTL-OT signed an agreement with Aarhus University concerning a Centre for Theatre Laboratories Studies (CTLS). CTLS was a collaboration between NTL-OT and the Dramaturgy Department of Aarhus University, acknowledged by the Faculty of Arts.

This collaboration should provide a framework and stimulate a milieu with exchange of knowledge and competences between the two involved institutions. Their collaborators should contribute to initiatives and projects aiming to sharpen the interest of theatre as a cognitive, social and artistic laboratory. An archive – Odin Teatret Archive – should be established to gather and administrate the wealth of written documents and audio-visuals materials kept at the theatre in Særkjærparken. CTLS and NTL-OT among other activities, organized international symposia, publications and a Summer School.

In 2007 the OTA, Odin Teatret Archives, was separated from CTLS and became an autonomous activity within the NTL-OT. (See Mirella Schino The Odin Teatret Archives, Routledge, London/New York, 2018, p.4). OTA’s staff managed to digitalise the first 50 years of NTL-OT’s activity. This impressive task was the merit of the Italian theatre Professor Mirella Schino who was helped by Francesca Romana Rietti (previously engaged at the CTLS) and Valentina Tibaldi together with a dozen PhD and MA students from various country. 

In 2014, all the original documents of the first 50 years of Odin Teatret’s activities as a laboratory were sent to the Royal Library in Copenhagen while a digitalized copy was kept at Særkjærparken as OTA which was a busy branch of the Holstebro laboratory. Its staff consisted of an archivist (first Sabrina Martelli and later Simone Dragone) in collaboration with Francesca Romana Rietti and Lluís Masgrau. They were continuing the work of gathering and digitalizing new documents and to inform and guide students and scholars visiting and contacting OTA.

From 2021 on, NTL-OT has been going through an extensive restructuring that has effected all activities and all staff. This process is ongoing and the board acknowledge the troubles and costs that this process has had for the people working at and connected to NTL-OT. As for all other parts of the theatre, the archive has also been affected by this process. In spring 2021, Francesca Romana Rietti and Lluís Masgrau vacated the archive and in June 2022 Simone Dragone stopped working at the OTA. This means that at the moment OTA remains without any personnel. This is not a sustainable solution, and Per Kap Bech Jensen and the board is currently working on a solution, which will solve both the immediate need for a contact person present at the archive in Særkjærparken and for a long-term solution for the archive in Holstebro.

At this moment, the board of directors agree that the situation is uncertain, but we also see great potentials for OTA in the future. One aspect of that is the initiative by Eugenio Barba to establish a LIVING ARCHIVE in Lecce (Italy). This included a copy of the digitalized documents kept in OTA (Holstebro) as well as Barba’s personal library and artistic objects. Until today, all expenses connected to the continuation of the archives in Lecce have been financed personally by Barba. The Board of Directors expresses its thanks to Barba for his initiative which enables the archive to become alive in Lecce.

While acknowledging that the transfer of physical objects to Lecce is experienced as a loss for Holstebro and for the people working at and visiting Særkjærparken, it is the intention of the board to use this as an occasion to strengthen OTA in Holstebro. This will happen in collaboration with old partners like The Royal Library and CTLS as well as new partners such as the local archive and the archive in Lecce. We share the vision of Per Kap Bech Jensen to preserve the archive in Holstebro and the process of keeping the history as well as archiving what is coming will continue. As agreed with the Royal Library in Copenhagen NTL-OT hands over the last material to be securely stored. This will allow students, scholars and researchers to access the material as well the generations to come. In Holstebro the archive will continue to digital archiving the activities, which means students, scholars and researchers today and in the future will be able to access the archive of OTA and the new digital archive. Another perspective is to use XR technologies. This will be implemented by time in relation to dissemination of archival content, which opens up for new possibilities for users to interact and experience the history.

We hope that this information clarifies the status of the OTA.

On behalf of the board of directors

Louise Ejgod Hansen, chair.

4) 3 June 2022

In June 2022 Eugenio Barba proposed a plan to NTL’s BoD in order to find a collaborative solution to the impasse situation between Odin Teatret, Eugenio Barba and NTL.

NTL BoD’s answer below.

Oplæg til bestyrelsen, 3 juni 2022

Jeg har tenkt å drive videre teatergruppen Odin Teatret i sine mangfoldige aktiviteter – ISTA/NG, forestillinger, interkulturelle produktioner, Levende Arkiv, JTA-Journal of Theatre Anthropology, festivaler, forskning, universitets samarbejd og community prosjekter.

1. Jeg foreslår at mine aktiviteter under navnet Odin Teatret helt atskilles fra NTL-OT både som administration og i det kunstneriske program. a. Alle Odin Teatrets aktiviteter krediteres NTL-OT som et samarbejde. (Se liste over aktiviteter allerede planlagt for 2023-24)

b. Jeg/Odin Teatret dekker alle utgifter i forbindelelse med aktiviterne.

c. NTL-OT bidrager til Odin Teatret med et fast årligt beløp på DKK 750.000.

d. Avtaleperioden gjelder 2023, med mulighed for forlengelse til 2024.

2. Jeg ønsker at navnet Odin Teatret (domænet odinteatret.dk) overføres til meg til å videreføre teaterkompagniet Odin Teatrets aktiviteter. NTL-OT kan/skal fremover bruke fx navnet NTL-OT eller liknende domæne. Alle sociale medie sider med navnet ‘Odin Teatret’ skal overleveres til meg. NTL-OT kan/skal fremover bruke fx. ‘NTL-OT’ eller liknende navne på sine sociale mediesider (Facebook, Instagram etc).

3. De gamle skuespillere fra teaterkompagniet Odin Teatret skal ha lov å bruke salene på Særkjærparken 144, hvis de ønsker det, på like fot med andre af NTLs faste skuespillere. De skal også ha lov til å kunne oppbevare deres kostymer og rekvisiter som tilhører dem og deres forestillinger de har lavet med meg som instruktør. De skal kunne spille når de ønsker det og når der er tid/plads i salene til det. Jeg ønsker ikke å få noen betaling for instruktør eller forfatter rettigheter.

Eugenio Barba

5) 1 July 2022

NTL BoD’s answer to Eugenio Barba’s proposition.

Viborg 1/7 2022

Bestyrelsens svar på henvendelse fra Eugenio Barba 3/6 2022

Først og fremmest så udtrykker bestyrelsen glæde over, at du fortsætter dine aktiviteter i al deres mangfoldighed. Det er dejligt, at du har energien og møder den store interesse og anerkendelse af, at dine og Odin Teatrets aktiviteter er vigtige.

Vi anerkender i overensstemmelse med de aftaler, vi har lavet tidligere, at navnet Odin Teatret følger dig.

Punkt 1:

Vi er indforståede med, at dine aktiviteter helt adskilles fra Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium. Vi vil gerne understøtte disse aktiviteter gennem et beløb til disse aktiviteter på 250.000 kr. i 2023. Dette beløb overdrages ved indgangen af året til Fondazione Barba Varley. Beløbet svarer til det, der blev sat i udsigt i aftalen mellem dig og bestyrelsen i vores aftale for 2022, men imødekommer ikke din nye anmodning om et forøget beløb på 750.000 kr. I og med at vores finansiering af aktiviteterne kun dækker en lille del af udgifterne, forventer vi ikke, at vi krediteres i forbindelse med aktiviteterne.

Punkt 2:

Ved udløbet af din kontrakt 31/12 2022 overdrages navnet Odin Teatret til dig, hvorefter det ikke længere anvendes af Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium. Domænet odinteatret.dk tilhører fortsat NTL, men anvendes alene som en side, der henviser til både NTLs kommende domæne og Odin Teatrets kommende domæne i en overgangsperiode indtil brugerne har vænnet sig til de nye domænenavne.

Senest pr. 31/12 2022 oprettes der nye mails som erstatning for alle @odinteatret.dk-mails, som opsættes til videresendelse i en overgangsperiode.

På sociale medier m.m. foretages en adskillelse af NTLs og Odin Teatrets aktiviteter pr. 1/1 2023. Facebook er allerede i dag adskilt, mens Twitter kan overtages af Odin Teatret. Instagram skifter navn men forbliver NTLs. I tilfælde af, at Odin Teatret ønsker en Instagramkonto, henviser vi brugerne til den nye profil, når den er oprettet. LinkedIn ændres, så Odin Teatret-navnet udgår som binavn. Youtube og Vimeo adskilles og Odin Teatrets materiale stilles til rådighed til nyoprettede kanaler i Odin Teatrets navn.

Punkt 3:

Adgang til sale og opbevaring af rekvisitter og kostumer aftales mellem teaterlederen og de enkelte skuespillere. Udgangspunktet er, at Odin Teatrets skuespillere vil få adgang til lagerplads og til salene på lige fod med de øvrige ensembler på teatret. 

På vegne af bestyrelsen

Louise Ejgod

After this letter was received by Barba and Barbas solution had been declined by NTL BoD, dismissed actors and administrative staff had to give back their keys and had no longer admission to the theatre they had built.

6) 4 November 2022

On the 4th of November 2022 Eugenio Barba gathers in his home all Odin Teatret’s members who had been dismissed by NTL and establishes the cultural association Odin Teatret.

THE NEW HOUSE OF OLD DREAMS. ODIN TEATRET REBORN FROM ITS ASHES

Now that we have won the bet of staying together almost an entire lifetime, we have burned our house. But we are going to build another one, still with the same name, still with the same dreams.

Today, 4 November 2022, we, Eugenio Barba, Judy Barba and Else Marie Laukvik, founders of Odin Teatret in Oslo on 1 October 1964, have founded the Odin Teatret Association, which will continue with performances and activities in Holstebro and abroad.

We have a long past behind us. Our memories are not regrets; they help us to free ourselves from illusions and certainties. We learned to be proud when we were overwhelmed with fatigue, not to shy away from challenges, not to calculate the time needed to refine a detail, to trust our obstinacy, to reject our tendency for mediocrity.

We do not know if at our age and in our time it is worth continuing. An obsession pushes us to belong to the TRADITION OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, whose origin dates back to Isadora Duncan and Stanislavski, and which includes Meyerhold, Vakhtangov, Brecht and Helene Weigel, Artaud, Julian Beck and Judith Malina, Atahualpa del Cioppo, Santiago Garcia and Patricia Ariza, our older brother Jerzy Grotowski, and the hundred thousand tribes of the Third Theatre.

Odin Teatret lives on. Not a day goes by without some sign. Someone, somewhere needs these signs.

PRESENT AT THE FOUNDATION CEREMONY: Eugenio Barba, Judy Barba, Else Marie Laukvik, Ulrik Skeel, Tage Larsen, Julia Varley, Rina Skeel, Claudio Coloberti, Dorthe Kærgaard, Leif Beck, Lisbet Gormsen, Antonia Cezara Cioaza, Jakob Nielsen and, in absentia, Jan Ferslev and Anne Savage.

7) 1 December 2022

1st December 2022 Eugenio Barba announces officially Odin Teatret’s separation from NTL with the following text.

ODIN TEATRET’S WANDERING OLD AGE

Here is the epilogue of a long odyssey and the beginning of a new one. 

At the end of November 2022, I and Odin Teatret will leave Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium-Odin Teatret, the institution that my actors and I founded and have developed in Holstebro since 1966, and which I led until December 2020.

This separation is due to the artistic choices and organisational transformations of the new director and the board of directors. Their way of thinking and realising theatre diverges fundamentally from the ideals and work culture that have characterised the identity of Odin Teatret as a theatre group.

I and Odin Teatret will continue our activities in Holstebro and abroad. You can follow us on our new website www.odinteatret.org and on the social media networks bearing our name. 

I, an eighty-six-year-old director, and my actors of more than seventy springs, rejoice at the prospect of continuing to meet Holstebro citizens and Odin’s ‘secret people’ who have followed us for more than half a century.

We count on actively spending our old age on performances and projects, adapting to the rhythm of our vitality. This will not be at the farm that we transformed into a theatre laboratory’, the home that welcomed so many of you. But we all know that theatre is the men and women who make it, and not a building.

Odin Teatret will continue to dance with indestructible faith in the values that inspired us, and with unchanged gratitude towards the citizens and politicians of Holstebro who supported us when we were anonymous foreigners.

8) February 2023

IN FEBRUARY 2023, A GROUP OF ITALIAN THEATRE SCHOLARS AND CRITICS WROTE TO THE DANISH MINISTER OF CULTURE AND TO THE MAYOR OF HOLSTEBRO EXPRESSING THEIR CONCERN ABOUT THE LOSS OF ODIN TEATRET’S LEGACY. 

From: Anna Bandettini <abandettini@icloud.com>
Sent: Saturday, 8 February 2023 10.52
Subject: Letter to the mayor of Holstebro about Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret

To Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Minister of Culture of Denmark,

To H.C. Østerby, Mayor of Holstebro.

We are a group of Italian scholars, cultural operators and journalists who have followed the artistic history of Odin Teatret and Eugenio Barba for decades. 

We are writing to you because we have learned with astonishment the latest news concerning the extraordinary artistic and cultural adventure that from Holstebro has spread worldwide, becoming a milestone in the history of international theatre.  

We refer to the news of a definitive exclusion of Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret from Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (NTL), i.e. from the theatre they founded back in 1964.

It is clear that the life of a theatre group, as with that of people, has an evolution – youth, maturity and old age – and that especially in this last phase it is necessary to change and to graft new forces, investing in the younger generation as NTL is doing. But it is equally clear that a generational transition in NTL cannot be lived as an ordinary change, but must take into account the artistic and cultural value that Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret represent in theatre history and in the international community.

We believe that the renewal of the NTL should not prevent the necessary link with its artistic root and the material and conceptual recognition of the artistic and historical value of the Odin Teatret and Eugenio Barba in the NTL itself.

It is not necessary to remind you how important Denmark and Holstebro have been for Odin Teatret and its history, and how much security and stability the city has given to their work. But at the same time how important Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret have been for Denmark and Holstebro which today are remembered in books on the history of theatre as an enlightened example of cultural policy.

Is it not a paradox not to take into consideration a piece of theatre history which is also a piece of Danish and Holstebro history?

It was the Mayor of Holstebro who in 1966 invited and welcomed an unknown Barba and his theatre from Norway. Today, what does the present Mayor of Holstebro, who on behalf of the entire city has a historical and cultural responsibility, think when he sees that Barba’s legacy has been transferred to Italy, where the Apulia Region finances a large archive on Barba and Odin Teatret in Lecce?

We trust in the prospect of seeing the cultural value of Odin Teatret and Eugenio Barba officially and publicly recognised in the place they founded and made grow.

Best regards

Anna Bandettini theatre critic and journalist “La Repubblica”

Francesco Cappa, associate professor, University of Milano-Bicocca

Marco De Marinis, professor, University of Bologna

Vito Di Bernardi, professor, University La Sapienza, Roma

Raimondo Guarino, professor, Università of Roma Tre

Massimo Marino, theatre critic and journalist “Corriere della Sera-Bologna Spettacolo”

Franco Perrelli, professor, University Aldo Moro, Bari

Andrea Porcheddu, theatre critic “Stati Generali”

Mirella Schino, professor, University of Roma Tre

THE DANISH MINISTER OF CULTURE DID NOT ANSWER THIS LETTER. FOLLOWING IS THE ANSWER OF THE MAYOR OF HOLSTEBRO.

Da: “Anette S. Madsen (Holstebro Kommune)” <Anette.S.Madsen@Holstebro.dk>

Oggetto: SV: Letter to the mayor of Holstebro about Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret

Data: 9 feb 2023 alle 14:19

A: ‘Anna Bandettini’ <abandettini@icloud.com>

Thank you for your mail and concern about the future of Nordisk Teater Laboratorium – Odin Teatret.

Over several years, and in close collaboration with Eugenio Barba, the theatre has been working on a planned generational change to ensure NTL going forward – and that it is a process that everyone agreed on including Eugenio Barba.

Eugenio Barba has done an excellent job and everyone in and outside Holstebro recognizes him for his efforts and “imprint”. But the board and new director has a task to secure the future theatre – in respect for this foundation – so that we also in the future will have an internationally recognized theatre.

The theatre is an independent institution with an independent board and it is their task to ensure that the heritage is managed appropriately – not Holstebro Municipality’s. Our financial contribution remains unchanged.

Therefore I’m not the right one to ask the questions you ask. You have to contact the director and the chairman of the board.

Best regards
H.C. Østerby
Mayor
Holstebro Municipality

FRENCH THEATRE HISTORIANS, CRITICS AND DIRECTORS WRITE IN FRENCH, ENGLISH AND DANISH TO THE DANISH MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND TO THE MAYOR OF HOLSTEBRO ASKING TO PROTECT THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF ODIN TEATRET

Monsieur Jakob Engel-Schmidte                                          

Ministre de la Culture

Nybrogade 2, 1203 København K, Danemark

Sous couvert de Monsieur Klaus Ib Jørgensen

Conseiller Culturel et de Presse

Ambassade du Danemark en France

77 avenue Marceau

75116

Copie au maire d’Holstebro H.C Østerby

                                                                                          Paris 25 février 2023

Monsieur le Ministre de la Culture,

Universitaires et artistes français, engagés dans la vie théâtrale sur le plan scientifique et de la création, nous avons une très grande admiration pour l’œuvre d’Eugenio Barba fondateur en 1964 d’une troupe de théâtre mondialement connue, – l’Odin Teatret – installée depuis 1966 dans la ville de Holstebro, grâce au soutien de sa municipalité. Né en Italie en 1936, titulaire d’un passeport danois, E. Barba a été récompensé par plus d’une dizaine d’universités internationales qui lui ont accordé le doctorat Honoris Causa. Il a reçu le Sonning Prize à l’ Université de Copenhague en 2000. Ce Prix prestigieux n’a été accordé qu’à deux Danois : Niels Bohr et Barba. C’est au Danemark que ce dernier a créé plusieurs institutions associées, dont le Nordisk Teater Laboratorium et l’International School of Theatre Anthropology.

En juin 2014, afin de célébrer le cinquantenaire de la création de l’Odin Teatret, une cérémonie solennelle a été célébrée à l’Hôtel de Ville de Holstebro pour signifier symboliquement le « mariage » de l’Odin et de la Ville. La qualité des festivités a impressionné les invités venus des quatre coins du monde.

Il est vrai que le nom de l’Odin Teatret est intimement associé à la ville de Holstebro dont la renommée, en raison de son souci de la culture, a fait l’objet de travaux universitaires. Cette ville du Danemark est ainsi devenu un point de référence historique pour les artistes comme pour les universitaires, et les jeunes d’aujourd’hui en quête de modèle. L’exemple de cette association – Holstebro-Odin Teatret – est désormais enraciné dans la mémoire et l’imaginaire collectif, comme peut l’être Paris à sa tour Eiffel !

Or nous apprenons avec stupéfaction que, sans doute à l’issue d’un malentendu, l’Odin Teatret et Eugenio Barba sont détachés du Nordisk Teater Laboratorium, comme si une partie du patrimoine du Danemark disparaissait à la suite d’un vol. Nous apprenons également qu’un musée consacré à l’Odin Teatret doit s’ouvrir à Lecce, en Italie. Il nous paraît essentiel de conserver à Holstebro la présence de l’Odin Teatret, ce qui ne s’oppose pas à la création d’autres lieux de mémoire.

En ces temps où plus que jamais nous devons prendre soin du patrimoine européen et de la mémoire de ceux et celles qui ont participé à sa création, nous vous demandons, Monsieur le Ministre, d’intervenir pour agir en ce sens. Nous vous savons attentifs à défendre l’héritage culturel, et à développer la coopération internationale. L’Odin Teatret et son fondateur Eugenio Barba sont l’exemple original d’un héritage culturel associant une ville du Danemark, l’Italie et le monde.

Nous sommes certains que votre intervention permettra de trouver une solution à un problème dont chacun s’accorde à penser qu’il se fonde sur un malentendu.

En vous remerciant, nous vous prions Monsieur le Ministre de recevoir l’expression de notre haute considération.

Professeur Émérite Jean-Marie Pradier, université de Paris 8

Mr. Minister of Culture,

French academics and artists, involved in theatrical life on a scientific and creative level, we have a great admiration for the work of Eugenio Barba, founder in 1964 of a world-famous theatre company, – the Odin Teatret – installed since 1966 in the city of Holstebro, thanks to the support of its municipality. Born in Italy in 1936 and holding a Danish passport, E. Barba has been awarded an honorary doctorate by more than ten international universities. He received the Sonning Prize at the University of Copenhagen in 2000. This prestigious prize has only been awarded to two Danes: Niels Bohr and Barba.

It was in Denmark that the latter established several associated institutions, including the Nordisk Teater Laboratorium and the International School of Theatre Anthropology. In June 2014, in order to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Odin Teatret, a solemn ceremony was held at the Holstebro City Hall to symbolically signify the “marriage” of the Odin and the City. The quality of the festivities impressed the guests from all over the world.

It is true that the name of Odin Teatret is intimately associated with the city of Holstebro, whose reputation for its concern for culture has been the subject of academic research. This city in Denmark has thus become a historical reference point for artists as well as academics, and for today’s youth in search of a role model. The example of this association – Holstebro-Odin Teatret – is now rooted in the collective memory and imagination, as Paris and its Eiffel Tower can be!

Now we learn with amazement that, probably as a result of a misunderstanding, the Odin Teatret and Eugenio Barba are detached from the Nordisk Teater Laboratorium, as if a part of Denmark’s heritage had disappeared as a result of a robbery. We also learn that a museum dedicated to the Odin Teatret is to be opened in Lecce, in Italy. We believe that it is essential to keep the Odin Teatret in Holstebro, which does not prevent the creation of other places of memory. In these times when more than ever we must take care of the European heritage and the memory of those who participated in its creation, we ask you, Mr. Minister, to intervene to act in this sense. We know that you are attentive to defend the cultural heritage and to develop international cooperation. The Odin Teatret and its founder Eugenio Barba are an original example of a cultural heritage that links a Danish city, Italy and the world.  We are sure that your intervention will help to find a solution to a problem that everyone agrees is based on a misunderstanding.

Most respectfully,

Professeur Émérite Jean-Marie Pradier, université de Paris 8

Franske akademikere og kunstnere, involveret i teaterlivet på et videnskabeligt og kreativt plan, har vi en meget stor beundring for arbejdet af Eugenio Barba, grundlægger i 1964 af en verdensberømt teatertrup, – Odin Teatret – installeret siden 1966 i Holstebro by takket være kommunens støtte. Født i Italien i 1936, indehaver af et dansk pas, E. Barba er blevet belønnet af mere end ti internationale universiteter, som har givet ham doktorgraden Honoris Causa. Han modtog Sonning-prisen på Københavns Universitet i 2000. Denne prestigefyldte pris er kun blevet givet til to danskere: Niels Bohr og Barba. Det var i Danmark, at sidstnævnte etablerede flere tilknyttede institutioner, herunder Nordisk Teater Laboratorium og International School of Theatre Anthropology.

I juni 2014, for at fejre 50-året for oprettelsen af Odin Teatret, blev der fejret en højtidelig ceremoni på Rådhuset i Holstebro for symbolsk at betegne Odins og byens “ægteskab”. Kvaliteten af festlighederne imponerede gæster fra hele verden.

Det er rigtigt, at navnet på Odin Teatret er intimt forbundet med Holstebro by, hvis berømmelse på grund af sin omtanke for kulturen har været genstand for videnskabeligt arbejde. Denne by i Danmark er således blevet et historisk holdepunkt for kunstnere såvel som for akademikere og unge i dag på jagt efter et forbillede. Eksemplet på denne forening – Holstebro-Odin Teatret – er nu forankret i den kollektive hukommelse og fantasi, som Paris og dets Eiffeltårn kan være! Vi erfarer dog med forbløffelse, at Odin Teatret og Eugenio Barba, formentlig som følge af en misforståelse, er løsrevet fra Nordisk Teater Laboratorium, som om en del af Danmarks arv forsvandt efter et tyveri. Vi lærer også, at et museum dedikeret til Odin Teatret skal åbne i Lecce, Italien. Det forekommer os væsentligt at beholde Odin Teatrets tilstedeværelse i Holstebro, hvilket ikke udelukker, at der skabes andre erindringssteder.

I disse tider, hvor vi mere end nogensinde skal tage vare på den europæiske arv og mindet om dem, der deltog i dens skabelse, beder vi Dem, minister, om at gribe ind for at handle i denne retning. Vi ved, at du er opmærksom på at forsvare kulturarven og udvikle internationalt samarbejde. Odin Teatret og dets grundlægger Eugenio Barba er det originale eksempel på en kulturarv, der forbinder en by i Danmark, Italien og verden. Vi er sikre på, at din indgriben vil hjælpe med at finde en løsning på et problem, som alle er enige om, er baseret på en misforståelse. Takket være Dem beder vi Dem, minister, om at modtage udtryk for vores mest udmærkede højagtelse.

Professeur Émérite Jean-Marie Pradier, université de Paris 8

Signatures : lettre au Ministre de la Culture du Danemark

  • Jean-Marie Pradier, Professeur émérite, université de Paris 8 – Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Paris Nord
  • Ariane Mnouchkine, fondatrice et animatrice du Théâtre du Soleil
  • Nathalie Gauthard, Professeure, université d’Arras
  • Patrice Pavis, Professeur, université de Paris 8
  • Martial Poirson, Professeur, université de Paris 8
  • Pierre Philippe Meden, Maître de conférences, université de Montpellier
  • Laurent Berger, Maître de conférences université de Montpellier
  • Arianna Berenice De Sanctis, Maîtresse de conférences université de Nice
  • Jean-Loup Horwitz, auteur, dramaturge, comédien, Paris
  • Patrick Pezin, éditeur, comédien, formateur
  • Luis Torreao, directeur de la Cie Hippocampe – mime corporel
  • Christophe Bara, gérant de la maison d’édition Deuxième époque
  • Carolane Sanchez, Maîtresse de Conférences en Arts de la scène et du spectacle vivant – Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté – Artiste-chercheuse
  • Françoise Gründ ethnoscénologue
  • Chérif Khaznadar fondateur de la Maison des cultures du monde.
  • Nicole Revel, Directrice de recherche émérite, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
  • Tiziana Leucci, CNRS, CEIAS-CESAH

THE DANISH MINISTER OF CULTURE DID NOT ANSWER THIS LETTER. THE MAYOR OF HOLSTEBRO ANSWERED WITH THE SAME LETTER SENT TO THE ITALIAN SCHOLARS AND CRITICS.

9 – 26 March 2023
link to the Danish newspaper>>

Interview given by Barba to the local Holstebro newspaper, Holstebro Dagblad, 26 March 2023. English version.

Eugenio Barba interviewed by Mette Sørensen

Odin Teatret’s founder speaks out:  It was clear that they wanted to get rid of me

Odin Teatret’s founder, Eugenio Barba, has been in bitter dispute with his successor, Per Kap Bech Jensen, and the Board of the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (NTL) for almost two years. He chose to say “no thanks” to 250,000 kroner (33.500 euros), took his private collections and went his way.

Holstebro: On December 2, 2022, you could read in Holstebro Dagbladet under the headline “Barba goes solo – and takes the name Odin Teatret with him” that the founder and long-time director of Odin Teatret, Eugenio Barba, would leave the theatre building in Særkærparken together with some of his trusted collaborators.

It came after rumours had circulated for a few months after an Italian newspaper suggested a break-up was brewing.

“The fact that Eugenio is leaving on December 1st is a rounding off of the generational change that has been under way at the local theatre for several years” commented the head of the Board of the theatre, Louise Ejgod.

But it wasn’t quite that simple.

In fact, one can almost speak of a previous feud, where Odin Teatret’s founder finally left the theatre he had built up over almost 60 years. At the time, neither party told the public anything about how high the waves actually went.

The course has been – in the words of someone in the closest circle, who didn’t want to be quoted – “a textbook example of a generational change that has gone off the rails”.

A theatre director with his own ideas

One could rightfully claim that Eugenio Barba, who was probably not on the appointment committee, but who was nevertheless asked for advice, chose to point to Per Kap Bech Jensen as his replacement, because he saw him as “a capable person, who was already known by the theatre”.

– He was modest, and I figured he would be a good moderator, says Eugenio Barba today about his successor.

The surprise was that the talented, modest new director had completely new ideas and his own opinion about things. Not least about the economy, which had to be tightened up. As he told Dagbladet in August 2022:

“The world is changing, and so are the demands for what a theatre must be able to do. (…) We pay for the work that is done. Anything else would be irresponsible since we receive public money”.

The relationship between the ex-leader and his successor already became so inflamed during 2021 that Per Kap Bech Jensen chose to let the head of the Board, Louise Ejgod, speak on his behalf when negotiating with Barba. In 2022, Barba followed suit and got help from people close to him to continue a dialogue with the Board that gradually became characterised by frustration and a lack of trust.

For Holstebro and the town’s citizens, this means that two theatres now exist: One is NTL, which is located where it has always been, namely in the often remodelled farm that Odin Teatret moved into in 1966. Here it is Per Kap Bech Jensen, who in 2021 took over as the new leader of what was then called Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium-Odin Teatret, leads the battle.

Then there is Odin Teatret, whose director and founder, Eugenio Barba, has received the Board’s acceptance that he has the right to keep for himself the name of the theatre he founded in Oslo in 1964. He did so at the turn of the year 2022-2023 when Odin Teatret moved out of Særkærparken and now has its main office at Barba’s private address by Vandkraftsøen. The idea is that the activities should still take place both in Holstebro and abroad as always because, according to Barba, they still receive invitations.

– Will I remain in Holstebro? Yes, that is clear. After all, I also pay for a plot in the cemetery here, on behalf of Odin Teatret, where the collaborators who so wish and I will one day lie. And no one can throw us out, says Eugenio Barba with a smile.

The legend’s own choice

It’s a beautiful, sunny day in February, and the theatre legend has invited us for coffee and a chat about what went so wrong.

The “theatre legend” is not something Barba or Dagbladet have invented. In 2019, Holstebro really gained a place in theatre history when the respected theatre professor Paul Allain published eight books about the most important directors of the 20th century. One of the volumes is simply called “Grotowski/Brook/Barba”. Barba is indisputably an icon in modern theatre history.

The above is not without significance as to why it was as surprising and unpleasant as a bucket of ice-cold water in the director’s face when it dawned on him that his status in the theatre world was apparently of little importance to either the Board or the new director.

For outsiders, it was a small thing that really ignited the fire that has fuelled the conflict ever since. On March 17, 2021, the new director Per Kap Bech Jensen wrote in an email to the director of Odin Teatret, Eugenio Barba, that Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium would not cover the cost of 3,600 euros for printing and mailing a theatre journal (JTA, Journal of Theatre Anthropology) that Barba had just started and published with documents from the archive.

The following conflict ended barely two years later, in January 2023, with the Board of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium writing in an email:

“Unfortunately, this has meant that the Board has assessed that it is not possible to maintain Eugenio’s association with the theatre”.

The “Archive” is at the centre of the entire conflict.

A private project

In 2004, Aarhus University established a decentralised research centre for theatre studies at Odin Teatret, Særkærparken. Here, frequented by researchers, there was a very large collection of documents – letters, programmes, photographs, notes, working diaries and more. Here too, Barba’s private library was to be placed and preserved.

Over a ten-year period, Odin Teatret itself paid a number of people from home and abroad to register and archive all documents. In 2014, the Royal Library’s theatre department offered to become the new home for Odin Teatret’s Archive. Today, all original documents are in Copenhagen.

But there is also a digital copy in Særkærparken in Holstebro.

– I was aware that we had cognitive capital there, so I decided to use the archive and create a journal, both digital and in print, and send it out into the world, explains Eugenio Barba.

That kind of thing costs money.

And so it was that in March 2021, Eugenio Barba asked the recently appointed director of the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (NTL) in an email for the aforementioned 3,600 euros for printing 420 copies of the theatre journal as well as for postage to send them to the most important libraries in the world.

Per Kap Bech Jensen said explicitly no, but suggested the money be taken from the Stanislavskij Fond – the actors’ private Fond for financially strained theatre groups and people.

Cancellation and limited budget

– What he said between the lines was: “I consider what you are doing a private project, so I will not finance it”, explains Eugenio Barba.

For him, it wasn’t just a little detail that he could let go. Theatre research and international endeavours were precisely what he intended to concentrate on in his later years.

And everything only got worse afterwards.

In April 2021, approximately one month after the famous email exchange, Per Kap Bech Jensen chose to cancel the planned annual Odin Week with 50 participants – allegedly because he wanted to present another guest performance and also needed to use the premises for rehearsing a large Danish-Korean project.

Eugenio Barba was astonished and wrote to the former Chairman of the Board, who was now an ordinary Board member, stressing his concern.

He received no answer.

In November 2021, Eugenio Barba was summoned to a meeting with the Board. At that time, communication with Per Kap Bech Jensen had come to a complete standstill. The two did not speak at all after Barba had presented a budget for the new performance Thebes in the Time of Yellow Fever of 380,000 kroner (60,000 euros), and Per Kap Bech Jensen had said that he could only get 10,000 kroner (1350 euros) to make a performance, and that was it.

Queuing for premises

Eugenio expressed his concerns to the Board – and was subsequently informed that, for the good of all, any future communication should now take place through the head of the Board, Louise Ejgod.

– If I bought a sheet for the performance, I should send the bill to her, and then she would send it to the bookkeeper. I have not received a salary since 2001. Since then I got only 2,000 kroner (265 euros) a month. I myself chose to leave the rest of my salary to Odin Teatret to finance the archive and other activities. The entire first floor of one wing of our building has been paid for by a loan that I took on my house. My presence was not a financial burden. I and the actors had chosen to live on a reduced salary in order to give money to young, upcoming actors for a few years, says Eugenio Barba.

He, who had previously been the theatre’s founder and director, was now told that he had to stand in line and wait for a venue to work on an equal footing with everyone else in the NTL.

– In the two years I was employed, after I was replaced as director by Per Kap Bech Jensen, I did not get the opportunity to use the working spaces to the extent I needed to rehearse my “last” performance. I was deprived of the opportunity to work in the theatre I had built with my own hands together with my actors. Instead, I sat at home and made ten films about theatre anthropology – financing the production myself – with documents from the archive that are available gratis online, says Eugenio Barba.

The offer from Lecce

At one point, Barba was informed that his private collection of 5,000 books, which he had placed at NTL, was an impediment in the case of a fire. The fire authorities demanded that the books be moved. They were, and thus the whole cataloguing process disappeared, according to Barba.

– I was aware that those books were on the verge of being thrown out. That would be the next step. Things had already disappeared, been thrown out, without me being informed, says Eugenio Barba.

Therefore, he decided to accept an offer from Lecce in Italy, a town in the region where Barba grew up. Lecce wanted to build a museum called “The Living Archive” as a tribute to him. Barba removed his books, his personal archive, a copy of the archive of Odin Teatret and of the Third Theatre, some set designs, his collection of historical theatre posters and his collection of masks – and sent them by lorry to Lecce.

– I had a long discussion with the Board about this. They recognised that they were my property and that I could do with it what I wanted. But they also said that I would thereby “empty” the building of its historical value, says Barba, who could not tell people at Odin Teatret why he pulled things down, removing them without any help.

He had promised the Board not to say anything until his contract expired.

– Although I begged and asked the Board to tell people at the theatre what was happening, they didn’t say anything. It wasn’t until two months later that a letter was sent out informing the staff, but by then the damage had been done and it had destroyed my relationship with several people at the theatre. People didn’t understand, says Eugenio Barba.

I am ashamed

Are you bitter?

– Bitter? No, I’m ashamed. That is for me the hardest, the heaviest. I am ashamed that I could not protect my actors and others who had left their homeland to come and work at Odin Teatret in Holstebro. Else Marie Laukvik, who started Odin Teatret together with me in Oslo… the way she was treated. She wasn’t even allowed to keep her email address because it cost the theatre money and she wasn’t employed anymore. And Ulrik Skeel, who has worked hard to link together all the different cultural institutions in Holstebro – he was fired. That was the way people were treated – brutally and hurtfully, says Eugenio Barba.

According to him and Ulrik Skeel, Per Kap Bech Jensen said at his inauguration speech in January 2021 that no major changes were going to happen in the first two years. But they did. The sackings took place in May-June 2022.

– He said l that it was a natural departure because people were old and tired. Yes, we are old, but we are not tired and we want to work, says Eugenio Barba.

Ulrik Skeel, who sat and listened to the conversation between the journalist and Barba, has his own interpretation.

– It felt as if some strangers had moved into my house and had started removing my things and putting their own stuff in their place. It was ithe intention that there should be a change, but we imagined that it would happen continuously, quietly, calmly and develop organically, he says.

No thanks to 250,000

In June 2022, Eugenio Barba tried one last time to communicate with the Board. He wished to continue working with Odin Teatret, i.e. with his actors, in Særkærparken. He suggested in an email continuing with performances, intercultural productions, the Living Archive, festivals, research and so on – all of which, according to him, had made a profit over the years.  He asked that he and his actors receive ten percent of the annual subsidy from the state and municipality, i.e. approximately 750,000 kroner (100,000 euros).

The Board replied that it was great that he wanted to continue being active, and that they would like to give 250,000 kroner (33.500 euros) in 2023. However, they did not want him to credit Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium for anything. They stated that the name Odin Teatret would be transferred to him at the end of his contract on 31.12 2022.

– It was quite clear that they wanted to get rid of me, says Barba.

Barba was so disappointed by the Board’s reaction that he informed them that he did not want to receive the amount of 250,000 kroner that he had been offered.

– I asked the Board to report what happened. But they didn’t want to. There are still people at the theatre who think I accepted 250,000 kroner, says Eugenio Barba disappointedly.

Perhaps you should have spoken up to the public yourself?

– Louise Ejgod wrote that the Board had deliberately chosen a restrained strategy in relation to the public and deliberately refrained from entering into situations that could create more confusion on the web. I didn’t want to make a fuss. What if it resulted in the closure of the theatre? That the actors in the two groups Váli and Ikarus lost their jobs? I agreed to keep my mouth shut until my contract expired. All I wanted was to get away from there.  I stayed so long because I wanted to see if I could save jobs, says Barba.

Pensioners with experience

Four of Odin Teatret’s old actors – Donald Kitt, Roberta Carreri, Kai Bredholt and Iben Nagel Rasmussen – were offered an extension of their contract by Per Kap Bech Jensen, and they accepted the offer.

– If I still talk to them? Yes, I do! They have been given the opportunity to continue in the place they have helped to build, and that is fine. The rest of us didn’t get that opportunity, says Eugenio Barba, who left Særkærparken together with Else Marie Laukvik, Tage Larsen, Julia Varley, Ulrik Skeel, Rina Skeel, Jan Ferslev and Anne Savage.

Barba published a manifesto in December 2022, in which he writes that “Odin Teatret will continue its dance with unbending faith in the values that inspired us, and with the same gratitude to Holstebro’s citizens and politicians who welcomed us when we were anonymous actors and strangers”.

– We are a kind of pensioners with lots of experience. We are not going to apply for grants – we earn money abroad. Next year is the 60th anniversary of Odin Teatret, which started in 1964 in Oslo, and many invitations have already arrived. For instance, from festivals in Serbia, the Netherlands, Italy and France, says Eugenio Barba. He explains that in the wake of the news that Odin Teatret had separated from NTL and was without premises, there were several offers og hospitality.

– Several theatre groups from abroad and in Denmark offered us space to rehearse. We were very moved by this, says Barba and reveals that he has dreams of working in a completely new way with the theatre.

He looks very excited at the thought.

– I am inspired by jazz. By jam sessions. You know, you can work with one, two, three actors, improvisation and more. No, I have not lost my life’s opus, and I have many projects and collaborations ahead, says the 86-year-old Italian from Holstebro.

Out of the mosaic

What did you really expect when Per Kap Bech Jensen replaced you as director?

– I expected respect for the permanent ensemble that has been together for decades. Nordisk Teater Laboratorium (NTL) is an umbrella organization that includes more than thirty activities. I had imagined I could continue with my actors as part of this mosaic. But very quickly it dawned on me that it wasn’t meant to be, says Eugenio Barba.

THE RESPONSE OF THE BOARD OF THE NTL

The director of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium Per Kap Bech Jensen did not want to comment on the article but refers to the head of the Board Louise Ejgod. She responds thus:

How do you feel about the fact that Odin Teatret’s founder, Eugenio Barba, feels sidetracked by the Board and the new director Per Kap Bech Jensen and sent away from the theatre he himself created?

– I’m really sad we ended up this way. It was by no means what we wanted when we set in motion a smooth generational change after 2014. It ended in some extremely complicated conflicts that resulted in us taking the decision not to renew Eugenio Barba’s contract as director at the end of 2022. Per was hired, among other things, with a vision of making a smooth transition from the old to the new. That process has been infinitely more difficult than any of us had thought.

– Corona also plays a decisive role in this, because Per has had to make the decision to keep at home large parts of the staff and cancel or adjust a number of international activities. In a theatre, where it has always been central to meet and work, it has been extremely difficult for the employees. It was, however, necessary to secure the theatre’s finances, which had been enormously exposed throughout the period.

Why didn’t the board inform the employees that Eugenio wanted and had the right to take down and remove his things from the theatre?

– Firstly, it is always a director’s responsibility to inform the employees. It is not the task of the Board. And secondly, Eugenio does not know what dialogue there had been between Per and the employees. I am sure that Per has taken care of it properly. I can see that the Board’s silence takes up a lot of space in Eugenio’s account. It’s one of the points we don’t agree on. He does not understand the background for our “silence”. We chose not to say anything publicly to protect the staff who had had a really hard time with the conflicts and the division that there had been.

Is what Eugenio Barba tells in the article wrong?

– I don’t notice immediately anything that is factually incorrect, but I know that much of it is interpreted in a slightly different way from what I would do. These different experiences of what is correct are a basic element in the way things have turned out. Now my highest wish is that we can move on – for everyone’s sake. That we can concentrate on the meaningful activities we all do, both in the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium and in the newly founded association Odin Teatret.

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

– I probably bear a responsibility, since I am part of it. I have thought a lot about whether I have done something wrong by indicating Per Kap Bech Jensen as the new director, says the former director of the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium-Odin Teatret. Photo: Johan Gadegaard.

– People ask: “What do the politicians say about that?”. They don’t say anything. They are silent. Holstebro showed great courage when they welcomed us in 1966, and we have had such good support over the years, especially from the town’s chief cultural civil servants. Photo: Johan Gadegaard.

– No, the archives have NOT been removed from Holstebro. There is a copy of them at the theatre in Særkærparken, I have not taken anything away to Italy. Anyone who works at Odin Teatret has the right to a copy of the archives – they are there to be divulgated. And the original documents are at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, explains Eugenio Barba. Photo: Johan Gadegaard.

– The old members of Odin Teatret have written a “testament”, understood in the sense that Odin Teatret will live as long as just one of us wants to do theatre. That is why we are so careful with Odin Teatret’s name, explains Eugenio Barba. Photo: Johan Gadegaard.

– Ulrik has invited NTL to collaborate with him on “Poetry on a Thursday” – to be a partner in the group organising the event. But they refused, says Eugenio Barba. Photo: Johan Gadegaard.

FACTS

1966 – Odin Teatret, active in Norway since 1964, is invited to settle in Holstebro. It receives a grant of 60,000 kroner and, as a work venue, a pigsty and a cow shed on a disused farm one km from the town. The area is 590 square meters and will be expanded in stages to 1850 square meters, self-financed. Barba and the seven actors create a “theatre laboratory” with workshops, guest performances, publications, sociological enquiries and collaboration with several universities.

1967 – Organisation of a Culture Week in collaboration with Jens Okking’s small theatre Vestergade 58 from Aarhus.

1980 – Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret receive the Danish Academy’s Kjeld Abell Prize on the grounds that they “search and find new paths in Holstebro with a vital and passionate commitment to the world that lies outside.”

1988 – Barba is bestowed an honorary doctorate by the University of Aarhus, the first of similar honorary degrees from twelve other universities, including Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Buenos Aires.

1989 – Odin Teatret celebrates its 25th anniversary by inviting Dario Fo to Holstebro for the third time and organising, without grants, the first Holstebro Festuge, which involves most of the town’s cultural institutions.

1991 – The Danish Kulturfonden gives 850,000 kroner to the second Holstebro Festuge. The support continues through the 90s.

1992 – Start of the annual Odin Week Festival and the triennial Transit Women’s Theatre Festival.

2000 – The University of Copenhagen gives the Sonning Prize of 500,000 kroner to Barba “for his efforts in spreading European culture.”

2004 – The University of Aarhus designates Odin Teatret in Holstebro as a decentralised research centre on theatre as a social laboratory with a summer school.

2008 – Barba starts building Odin Teatret Archives. In 2014, the original documents from the first 50 years of the laboratory’s activities are handed over to the Royal Library in Copenhagen. A similar archive with digital copies and several collaborators is in Holstebro.

2022 – Barba receives the Wilhelm Hansen Foundation’s Honorary Award of 200,000 kroner as “one of the most important people in recent theatre history – if not the most important”.