A group of four students from the Music and Theatre Academy in Norway, (minus one member), presented the concepts and working methods they used to create their piece Riding A Dead Horse, which draws imagery and themes from spaghetti westerns, and in particular Sergio Leone’s 1968 Italian epic, Once Upon A Time In The West.
"This performance is a graduation performance we made, we are four actors and I am a scenographer," begins Susanne Jrene Fjortoft, "And we are all on stage, all performers and all scenographers in this performance so we have been working with a flat structure."
"Five lonesome performers riding into the light, a long stretch of time where nothing and everything can happen, a clash of five string wills beating in silence." Reads Erik Kristoffer Eberb Nielsen from a text, "Livestock seeks to explore the borders betwen personal independency and being part of a collective. Can we while pursuing our individualistic needs, still aim for a common goal. The strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone."
"Our initial fascination was spaghetti western movies, we wanted to make western into a stage performance, our main fascination with this movie, is the moments where nothing is happening but still there is this amazing tension for a whole 14 minutes." says Hanna Barfod, dressed for the occasion in cowboy boots and embroidered cowboy shirt.
It was this tension which Livestock wanted to capture in a live situation. So each of the group chose a character, went away and created 14 minutes for an opening, then came back together combined these individual parts, with some alterations, to make a 40 minutes production.
Inspired by the Norwegian North sea, the huge desolate salt flats, they compared these landscapes to the big open, and blank spaces of Sergio Leone's film. Taking cues from theatre companies such as Forced Entertainment, Susanne like the dynamic of conflicting performers coming togther in different worlds.
The strategy of presenting an ambiguous persona was presented through a group of five clashing of ideas and opinions created a valuable tension, which trhe group fed of and which made for a great creative environment.
They filmed the process and invited people come and watch and give them feedback. Their working process reflects the Norwgeian Theatre Schools ethos, which is very open structure, "you just need to have to be able to explain why you are doing it, be able to pitch each project."
And throughout this presentation and discussion, one of the four present group members sat with a horse head on, saying nothing.
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