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I would always describe what I do as
a kind of manipulation of time and space.

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How can such work actually come into being
in this insane business that is theatre?

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I would say I have a basic trust.

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I have faith that together, we're going to do something
great and I think that transfers to the others.

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I believe very strongly

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in a form of inner freedom,
no matter the circumstances.

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So I always try to feel free

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as much as possible, regardless of the circumstances.

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Of course, that doesn't always work and sometimes

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I find myself complaining or somehow
blaming others for some situation.

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And then I always want to get

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out of it as quickly as possible.

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And it's also very good to have people

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around you who make you aware of this.

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I would always describe what I do as
a kind of manipulation of time and space.

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And I do that a lot through

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language, pauses, silences, also through juxtapositions of content.

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I used to think, I have to maintain control of everything

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and pull all strings.

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And that has become much less.

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Or maybe it became much easier for me

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because I have such confidence in what the individuals bring in

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and I don't have to know, control and
decide everything down to the last detail,

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but rather let the threads in my hands
glide easily through my fingers.

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And I think, if you create a space like that, everyone
creates their own artistic development within that space.

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This way of working has become so much more exciting,
compared to talking them through every little detail from the beginning.

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It always strikes me how much my
process is centered around ideas.

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It used to be very difficult for me to get hold of things

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because they didn’t seem accessible to me.

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And nowadays I would say - and it is still developing in this direction -

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everything is material, to the point where sometimes it's overkill.

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Series I watch, books I read,
Instagram messages, YouTube videos.

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So sometimes I have a huge amount of material.

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I used to have to tell myself:

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“Okay, I have to sit down now,

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I have to think of something, I have
to produce something somehow.”

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And now it's just flowing all the time.

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My work process is actually composed of this huge
document where I collect all possible material.

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This can be texts from the Bible
next to some YouTube commentary.

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Side by side, I observe how these
different materials affect one another.

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To understand, whether you can create
tension between different texts.

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For example, working on “The Virgin Suicides”,

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I read the book and just marked these
sentences I found interesting.

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With “Three Sisters” as well

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I copy-pasted them into a document
and built something around it.

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I work with tension a lot,

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which is, in my opinion, something theatre is missing a lot.

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How can we create a form of montage?

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With “Three Sisters” with blackout in between.

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So it's like putting different images one after the other.
In “Women in Trouble” it was the movement of these rooms.

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The space must carry a feeling, a tension, an inner tension.

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So a sentence, when spoken in this space, creates a certain effect.

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Basically I'm producing this script

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through this copy-paste method.

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This collecting process can last from half a year to a year.

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At the moment I’m working on a piece called “Angela”,

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for which I’m collecting texts.

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Very soon after, the conversation about space begins.

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Spaces are so important for me

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because the space itself can actually manifest a form of condition.

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It functions as a strange mirror which affects
the characters, but also to the audience.

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That’s the kind of space I want to create.

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It develops simultaneously with the script.

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And then we go to the recording studio

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and ask people, some of whom have no acting training,

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to record the voices.

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A very large part of the work

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comes from the sound designer

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Richard Jansson who creates a kind of composition,

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which is then the basis for our rehearsals.

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And in rehearsals the actors come together
and start to deal with these voices.

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How does the body fit in?

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So it's almost a form of channelling.

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How do I let this voice work through me?

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Sound, video, actors, everything is interconnected.

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They are so dependent on eachother that without one of the elements nothing would work anymore.

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My rehearsal process used to be quite different.

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Never with huge crisis

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but I used to put a lot of pressure on myself

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and of course that immediately transferred to others.

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I came to a point where I made the
conscious decision not to do this anymore.

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But of course this change didn’t happen overnight.

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I look for people who have an urge to work.

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People who want to investigate something who want to work and who want to immerse themselves in the work.

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It makes you happy when the work itself is

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what brings us together and we create something together.

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I would say I have a basic trust.

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I have faith that together, we're going to do something
great and I think that transfers to the others.

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I would say there are a lot of people who work more than me.

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When I work I try to be so highly focused, disciplined

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but once the rehearsal is over I stop working entirely.

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For me it’s like a form of high-performance sport.

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But you also have to train yourself not
to give in to any spirals of thought.

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All these possibilities of potential failure

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and all possible opinions.

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What does this or that person actually think about it?

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Are they really satisfied, are they dissatisfied?

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I think everyone knows this pattern of getting lost in such thoughts.

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It is very important to stop this spiraling as early as possible.

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I am convinced that it’s possible to
train yourself to stop, to not give in to it.

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And to apply this method in the rehearsal room.

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I think in the beginning I provide a kind
of vision, a theme and a kind of state.

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I try to connect everyone through these conditions.

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So they develop a feeling for this state,
which we want to create together.

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And that's my task, so to speak, to inspire the others.

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So they are given a basis on which the work
can unfold, that's the preliminary work,

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and in the rehearsal room,
I have to be incredibly present

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in order to be able to perceive with hightened senses

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if we are onto something that creates this state, this field of tension.

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And even if we’re not there yet do I have the feeling

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that we're on the way of achieving it?

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And that's why it's so important

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to be calm, to be at ease for this high concentration.

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In the rehearsal room I'm highly intuitive.

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I totally forget this script that I wrote

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and I try so hard to be in the present, to let go of everything.

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I have the responsibility and I accept it.

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And at the same time I try to create an open space for everyone.

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Perhaps it doesn’t always work but for the most part

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to be able to develop themselves and be visible.

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A place for open communication, even criticism.

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I try not to take it personally but leave
it there and observe at what happens.

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How can it affect the situation, how can it affect
the group, what kind of effect can it have on me?

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Yes, I also have moments where I wonder what could happen

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if I would be able to just sit and take notice.

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So the scene is over, I tell them to stop,

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but nothing would happen, if I don't ask
“What was that, where do we go now?”

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“What do we do now?”

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“When do we take a break, how long do we
take the break, how do we organise it?”

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So you actually have to hold the energy at all
times and this task you have to be able to face.

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That's the task you have to take on.

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When you have a child you also have to learn that

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if you have the tendency to determine something
very quickly, to intervene, to assert, to know better.

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I have a daughter who shows me

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very, very clearly that she doesn't want me to do that.

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I don't know if I learned this from the theatre

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but it is also a mechanism that I have to give
her a form of freedom to develop.

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And I create space around it, in which she

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can do that, so to speak.

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How can such work actually come into being
in this insane business that is theatre?

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First of all I would like the idea of continuing
my work for as long as possible.

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That I can just keep on working.

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I no longer have any big goals that I really want to achieve

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like wanting to go there or having to take over this theatre or such.

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Simply the idea of continuing to work with such freedom

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that one can work together in such a playful way.

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If I could manage to do that for another 30 years
and provide for myself through this work.

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I have this ongoing search inside myself,
which I hope to continue through my work.

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And I hope that people feel that it is an upright search for questions

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which actually concern all of us and
that this can be the power of theatre.

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Going back to the roots of theatre.

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Why do we do theatre at all?

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Why is there apparently such a human need for people

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to portray another on stage and try to find answers about ourselves

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through the process of observation?

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Why do we feel the need to develop such
a strange mirror on this stage, such an illusion?

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And I want to contribute to this power of theatre in its original form.

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To this ritual and these human questions of

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who we are, where we come from, where we are going.

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I want to be part of this search.

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The older I get, the less I care about aesthetics, shape, ...

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It used to be much more important for me to
distinguish myself from others through my style.

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And I'm somehow looking for something specific.

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And now it has become simply a means
for me to give this search a form

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because I have felt that I myself need a certain form to access it,

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this feeling, but it has become only a means to get to that point.

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So it's not the end purpose.

