Verion

Verion was a science fiction production made in collaboration between very different professional fields in Norway and abroad; the creative team from We Need more data, Bureau, creative leader Catherine Kahn, Avant Garden and NTNU, Department for Electronics and Telecommunications, Department of Telematics, the media lab Midgard medialab and Q2S. It was produced in 2009.

Verion was a production for youth and adults, about seeing. In a city called Verion the audience meets humans and mutated creatures alike, governed by a supervisor nobody knows who is. Nature and civilisation has fallen apart after a sunstorm during which the ocean disappeared.

Information

(Objekt ID 8120)
Object type Production
Premiere August 27, 2009
Coproducers Rosendal Teater, NTNU
Audience Youth, Adults
Number of events 6
Language Norwegian
Keywords Theatre, Fantasy, Video
Running period August 27, 2009  —  September 2, 2009
Duration 70 minutes

Requirements to venue

Blackout No
More

In Verion the audience meets Myra who is searching for her sister who disappeared during the same sunstorm. Myra is led to the young soldier Charlie. They approach each other in the borderland between the dream world of childhood and a new and harder reality. Through the young people the audience meets a longing for freedom, and their search for new ways to live.

Using live data animation (machinima) the stage room is recreated into an animated, virtual universe. The stage performers are presented as players in a graphic world in which the divide between live and animated characters is erased. The audience will be given 3D glasses, and experience the production in HD quality.

The jubilee production Verion was made by the creative team from We Need more data, Bureau, creative leader Catherine Kahn, Avant Garden and NTNU, Department for Electronics and Telecommunications, Department of Telematics, the media lab Midgard medialab and Q2S in collaboration.

We Need more data, Bureau is a concept development agency consisting of individual performing artists, scriptwriters, composers, data artists and media developers. The agency emphasises stage, film and acting through the use of interactive platforms.

Verion won the 25 year anniversary competition of Avant Garden in 2009.

Verion was supported by the municipality of Trondheim through the anniversary competition of Avant Garden, NTNU, Department for Electronics and Telecommunications, Department of Telematics, the media lab Midgard medialab and Q2S, Arts Council Norway and The Audio Visual Fund.

Source:

Jubilee program 2009, Avant Garden

Performance dates
September 2, 2009Teaterhuset Avant Garden Show
August 31, 2009Teaterhuset Avant Garden Show
August 30, 2009Teaterhuset Avant Garden Show
August 29, 2009Teaterhuset Avant Garden Show
August 28, 2009Teaterhuset Avant Garden Show
August 27, 2009Teaterhuset Avant Garden Worldwide premiere
Press coverage

Amund Grimstad, Avantgarde-teater (literally: Avant-garde theatre), Klassekampen September 02 2009: http://amund.info/2009/09/avantgarde-teater:

"With 3D glasses we are taken to the city of Verion in a kind of futurist sci-fi game in which a disaster has made the ocean disappear, and where the city is populated by a mix of mutated creatures and ordinary people It is a post-civilisation story in which we meet two persons, Myra and the soldier Charlie, both searching for something. The story is a bit difficult to grasp, as well as not too convincing, and the acting is characterised by lack of direction and instruction. But, as incredible as it may sound, these objections become relatively minor. For Verion is first and foremost a journey through new technology, and a demonstration of what we can and should expect from the theatre in the future."