Kabaret, det revolusjonære og poetiske

Abstract

In Norway, the theatrical avant-garde, 1920–1950, was oriented towards cabaret dramaturgy and symbolism. There also developed a direction of political theatre, as well as tendencies towards a more poetic-theatrical kind of theatre. Directors such as Agnes Mowinckel and Hans Jacob Nilsen were central to this development in both private and institutional theatres. A monumental realism had already established itself as a Norwegian directing style in connection with the Ibsen-tradition at Nationaltheatret, where Johanne Dybwad was a prominent figure. A major director of the avant-garde was Stein Bugge, who also wrote comedies of the grotesque kind. The article also gives examples of the cabaret culture in the arctic, exemplified by popular revues with participation from traveling directors like the Jewish Salomon Schotland. One can basically speak of a revolutionary avant-garde also, using amateur theatre like in the work of Olav Dalgard. This avant-garde would by the 1950s be followed up by dramatic writers like Tarjei Vesaas and Georg Johannessen, preparing the way for new tendencies of cabaret and laboratory theatre, like ‘Odin Teatret’, founded in Oslo in 1964. The fact that ‘Odin Teatret’ after a couple of years left Norway for Denmark, represented a temporary halt for Norwegian avant-garde until a new social oriented and performative avant-garde came about in the 1970s.