Follow Friday: Gruppe 38, Svalegangen, and BBC Introducing/BBC Podcasts

As of late, I have had much joy of two theaters in Aarhus – one is Teatret Svalegangen, the other is Teatret Gruppe 38. At the same time, I have taken inspiration from one of BBC’s podcasts for Music Monday this week; I seem to enjoy listening for new music through those.

Teatret Svalegangen is a very short way from the train station in Aarhus. It’s my impression that they are a very present and (pro)active theater, aiming to be present, cooperating with the cultural scene in Aarhus, working on the relation to their audiences, developing the art of theater – and more.

I know that I always feel welcome and comfortable when I arrive and am at the theater, and the staff is in my experience always pleasent. When I’m not there, I – who use social media a decent amount of time in my everyday – am lucky enough that they are also very much present at some of the most popular social media sites. Besides their official website (www.svalegangen.dk), they can be found at Facebook (/svalegangen), Twitter (@Svalegangen), Instagram (@Teatret_Svalegangen), and YouTube (/Svalegangen).

Teatret Gruppe 38 is not as close to the train station, but less than a 20 minutes walk away, and easily accessible by public transportation. Their audience is usually a younger one of the kind (as I think I have already mentioned). I think that the world they are able to create is quite magical and able to leave an impression, even to someone at my age – and although I think that this is true for many companies working with theater for children in Denmark, Gruppe 38 does have a strong profile. I think it may come from the principle of not working with children/young audiences as wee creatures who need protection, but as people (of a certain age, granted) who sense, understand, and can take more than we might think as adults.

In good news for the international community in and around Aarhus, Gruppe 38 will be showing pieces in English in the upcoming season and plan on doing more of that in following seasons; read more in the blog post I wrote on it. If you live abroad, keep an eye on their social media accounts for updates on touring abroad.

Gruppe 38 have their official website (www.gruppe38.dk) and are on Facebook (/TeatretGruppe38), Twitter (@TeatretGruppe38), YouTube (/TeatretGruppe38), and Vimeo (/user4539831).

Both theaters have each their own café, both open before and after shows. As this post is posted, there is one show left of “OTTETUSINDE”, which is a production by Svalegangen shown at Gruppe 38’s venue due to refurbishment at Svalegangen’s venue – after this show, the theaters are done for this season, starting the next in August.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (or simply put: BBC) have plenty of podcasts available on their website and through iTunes. I usually vacuum the genres of Drama, Music, and Learning for audio books, audio plays, and podcasts on theater and music, often with a pretty decent outcome. As you may remember, Music Monday this week was inspired by BBC Introducing in Cornwall; this is one of the podcasts I have downloaded from the Music section.

If you check BBC’s main Twitter account and make a Twitter search, you might – like me – be able to tell that there are more Twitter accounts from the BBC, representing local branches of BBC Introducing, than there are of the podcasts. As for now, I don’t have the time to go through all the Twitter accounts, but I can give you the Twitter handles of @BBC_Podcasts and the main @BBC_Introducing, and the links for the BBC Introducing podcasts (which are all down on my computer by now, ATL Introducing being my fave so far):

BBC Radio Ulster: ATL Introducing… New Irish Music
BBC Radio Cornwall: BBC Introducing in Cornwall
BBC Radio Jersey: BBC Introducing in Jersey
BBC Radio Oxford: BBC Introducing in Oxford
BBC Local Radio: BBC Introducing in the West
BBC Radio Humberside: BBC Introducing on Radio Humberside
BBC Radio Suffolk: BBC Suffolk Introducing…
BBC Radio Scotland: Scotland Introducing
BBC Radio 6 Music: Tim Robinson Introducing…

Alright. Now that you have made it thus far in a long blog post from me, I hope you found something you like. Other than that, there is nothing left but the usual final question:

Do you have any favorite theaters in your area? Where do you usually go to find new music?

“OTTETUSINDE”, Teatret Svalegangen/Teatret Gruppe 38, May 2014

Ottetusinde – or eight thousand/8000 – is the zip code of central Aarhus, the biggest town (or smallest city, depending on how you perceive it) in Denmark. The play is about life in Aarhus, thus the title.

The play is the result of crowd sourcing at Facebook; through its Facebook page, the theater has let its followers give inputs and vote on characters, locations, situations, and lines. The intention was, as I understand it, to give a broad and good picture of Aarhus as its citizens know it. The result is nine characters, played by three actors, whose life stories and situations seem to criss-cross among one another.

It seemed like quite the undertaking, having to collect what may come their way through the process of crowd sourcing through Facebook. They made it work well; I’m impressed with how well they made all the characters and stories intertwine.

One character who made me laugh was Lucas, a Copenhagener who has lived in Aarhus for seven years, but hates it. His hate may not be the fault of Aarhus in any way, though, but be a result of him being out of a job for so long that his social security is running out. I can only imagine how frustrated he is. Fortunately I can’t relate to being out of a job or studies for that long, nor can I relate to hating Aarhus – but being a Copenhagener having lived in Aarhus and its suburbs for the better part of four years, I am able to relate to being a Copenhagener in Aarhus and however odd, weird, off, or funny some things can seem through those optics. I don’t think I have laughed that much during a production for the longest time than I did during his first scene which contained a speech on what, according to him, was so wrong with Aarhus.

Watching it as a full-time inhabitant of Aarhus, I fell in love with the way locations were used throughout the play. In one of the first scenes, a former couple meet. As they are going the same way, they agree to accompany each other, but it ends up as a pursuit for his part. In the pursuit of getting back and staying in touch, he follows her while she – for the majority of the trip – tries to get away from him by changing buses regularly, going back and forth, here and there in Aarhus. Throughout the bus rides, the bus stops are being announced – and with the bus stops in the center of Aarhus being familiar to me, I couldn’t help but trace them around in my mind (which might just be the point of it). This is one of the ways in which they managed to make Aarhus a character in the play more than merely a location. Raising up the location like that is something I truly appreciate in a production; not in a way that it dominates the entire thing, but in a way in which the audience gets a good sense of the place.

“OTTETUSINDE” is produced by Teatret Svalegangen, but due to refurbishment of their own venue, the production is played at Teatret Gruppe 38‘s venue.

There is no description of the play in English at the theater’s website, but to read description in Danish, click this link.

The last performance is on May 24th. For tickets, check this link (in Danish only, unfortunately) – and be aware that there are discounts for certain groups.