nordiclarpyearbook2015

Oss imellom:
Being homosexual in a hostile world
- By Tor Kjetil Edland
Oss imellom (“Us Together”) is a larp about
the very beginning of the gay and lesbian
movement in Norway. The larp was written
and organised by Jeanita Hatlestrand and
Tor Kjetil Edland. It is set in Oslo in 1951
and the first, and so far only, run of the
game took place in November 2015 in Oslo.
The larp is written for 20 characters and is
played over two days with a break between
day one and day two.
Why a larp in this setting?
In 2015 the US Supreme Court ruled that
the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex
couples was against the constitution. In
many other countries, including Norway,
similar same-sex marriage laws have been
passed during the last two decades, together
with laws outlawing discrimination on
the grounds of sexual orientation. Public
opinion has shifted drastically in a short
time. While politicians in most countries
could previously count on pandering to homophobia
among voters as a sure way of
gaining popularity, Ireland proved in 2015
that it is now possible to win a popular referendum
in favor of same-sex marriage.
One of the main reasons why we believed
that it would be an interesting experience
for our participants to play lesbians and gays
in the early 50s was that it gave them an opportunity
to explore how much our society
has changed in this area in a few decades.
In the 1950s, participating in a homosexual
scene carried with it the threat of scandalisation
and loss of home and work. The larp
offered an opportunity for the participants
to explore how these conditions might have
affected the character’s understanding of
themselves, their love lives and friendships
and their hopes for the future.
The organization for city and
countryside
The physical location used for the larp was
a scouting cabin in Oslo, only a few minutes
away from the nearest subway station.
This made it possible to have a larp over
two days without the need for sleeping arrangements
at the game site.
The scouting cabin was also reminiscent
of the type of location that the organisation
actually rented in the 50s for their
social gatherings, under the discreet cover
of “The organisation for city and countryside”.
Each of the two acts had a similar
structure. The first part of each act was a
general meeting with an agenda prepared
by the organisers.
The topics on the agenda were inspired by
information gathered from memoirs and
newsletters available at the Skeivt Arkiv, the
Norwegian LGBT archive. Beginning each
act with a meeting both gave the players a
chance to reflect on and act out their character’s
position on issues such as ‘how public
should the organization dare to be in it’s
work to create greater understanding and to
abolish the law criminalizing homosexualty?’.
The structured meeting in a voluntary
association also represented something very
typical of Norway in the 50s; it was the way
to go about working on improving things in
society, and a large part of the population
were active in one or more organizations.
Between the first and the second act, a few
months had passed in-game. We set this
gathering for the second act to just a few
days before Christmas.
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