Nordic UNIMA Magazine

The aim is to get lost28Katrine Maria Eponine Strøm prefers the path lesstraveled when creating her art. In her most recentperformance, the aim is to get lost.I want children to experience that if they get lost,they can always find new and undiscovered paths,explains Katrine.The performance Vidunderkammer (Chamber ofWonder) is a labyrinth of experience: a strange placewith tunnels, corridors, fantastic chambers and secretentrances which the public move through in the searchfor a dream. In an attempt to define Katrine’s work,we ask if she is actually engaged in producing puppettheatre...Puppet Theatre- Puppet theatre? I’ll have to think about that. Yes, Ibelieve that’s what I’m doing. Puppet Theatre is tocreate and animate objects, spaces and actors. InVidunderkammer, it’s the spaces that are animated.We’re changing the scenic construction constantly.There are six players involved in the performance butnot many of us in view at the same time. Most are busyreconstructing the spaces. When the children go backto a space, it’s changed into something completelydifferent. They ask “Is the room automatic?” or say“It’s like being in a dream.” Then I know I’ve achievedwhat I set out to do.- But can it actually be called a theatricalperformance?I’ve wondered a bit about that myself, but I’ve cometo the conclusion that even it’s somehow close to aninstallation, it is theatre, because it has a clear beginningand a clear ending. Besides, my performances arebased on a detailed manuscript that I’ve written. It isKatrine M. E.Strøm interviewedby: Anne Helgeseninteractive theatre though and makes contact with allone’s senses, including smell and taste.The Academy of Puppet TheatreKatrine took the actor’s training at the Academy ofPuppet Theatre in Fredrikstad from 1998 to 2001. TheAcademy was set up in 1994 as the result of UNIMANorway’s lengthy campaign for a dedicated education inpuppet theatre. In 1998, Mona Wiig, who had developedand led the course of study, was obliged to hand in herresignation. She was replaced by scenographer, RolfAlme, who transformed the college into one of generaltheatre training with an avant-gardist approach. Thisprocess gave rise to a deep split in the Norwegianpuppet theatre milieu. We ask Katrine what it was liketo be a student during such a turbulent period:Obviously it was a bit strange. I’d actually applied to aschool of puppet theatre and suddenly it wasn’t one anymore. It’s not difficult to understand that the conversionwas terribly painful and bitter for those who had foughtso long for a specialised training within puppet theatre,but for me it was necessary to think that I needn’t getinvolved in the conflict. I absorbed the new ideas thatwere brought into the school and used them to developmy own projects. I had three wonderful years at TheAcademy, and I am happy that my studies turned outthe way they did.