“Safariland” is a travel diary in pub format, blending East Finnmark and East Africa in a most unflattering union. The performance is staged at our beloved neighbor, The Shamrock Bar. After each show, you’re welcome to raise a glass, chat, and reflect with the company.
Artists Arne and Randy travel from Nesodden to Kenya. Arne is on a literary mission to confront the legacy of his grandfather, who in 1952 made the controversial film Safariland – Among N* and Wild Beasts in East Africa. Randy, a performance artist, has always dreamed of going on safari, and sees the journey as a chance to gain inspiration – and perhaps earn greater recognition in Nesodden’s art scene.
In Kenya, they encounter the troubadours from Finnmark, Mattis and Tom Rudy. The duo has been hired for the event “Kick-off Kenya”, where they are to entertain a company preparing to begin deep-sea mining off the coast of East Finnmark.
In the show, Mattis and Tom Rudy serve up the very best of Northern Norwegian storytelling, recounting the journey, fall, and feeble attempts at redemption of the southern artists Arne and Randy.
Safariland is a performance about loneliness and longing, and about racism, prejudice, and the exoticization of people far to the south – and far to the north. It is also about cultural policy: Kristinsdottir/Willyson draw inspiration from the ongoing culture war, the mockery of artists on social media, and the right wing’s alternative state budgets, with significant cuts to art and culture funding.
Safariland is made with love for art – and not least for the pub, a place where we can gather with people we don’t know, or barely know, to experience something unexpected, and afterwards raise a glass, discuss, and be on familiar terms. The performance is inspired by the TV series Du skal høre mye (Wait Till You Hear This) which gathered families around the television with anecdotes from across Norway from 1987 to 2003.
The manuscript contains a few sentences from Karen Blixen’s “Out of Africa” and Toppen Bech’s “Magiske Kenya”, as well as one sentence from Tomas Espedal’s “Lyst (en forfatters selvbiografi)”.
● The artist duo Kristinsdottir/Willyson have collaborated since 2007 and have visited Black Box teater numerous times – both together and individually. They are known for experimental, poignant, and laugh-inducing theatre that explores deep emotions, big questions, and small people. Their most recent visit to Black Box teater was in 2023 with Do-re-me-too-sa-Lo-li-ta, and they have previously presented My Little Willy (2021) and Lille Leiolf (2019).
