Reviews

The Trigger System

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Award for "Best Theatre Production" - Heddaprisen 2025

"Celebrating theatre's unique language, resilience, and transformative power, the production weaves together a wealth of bold and original theatrical devices. Through allegory, and with an exceptional ensemble of performers and musicians, this musical fable takes the pulse of our planet in the midst of an apocalyptic flood—an experience that is unsettling, breathtaking, and brutally beautiful." (Hedda Jury)

 

Award for "Best dramatic text"  - Heddaprisen 2025

"A clever, fairy-tale-like and remarkably original text that never preaches, yet is unafraid to be political. Exploring the climate crisis, the climate of public discourse, and the social dynamics of human interaction, this narrative drama entertains while sparking reflections that endure long after the curtain falls." (Hedda Jury)

 

Nominated for "Best director" ( for Heddaprisen)

"Nothing is left to chance as this cornucopia is allowed to overflow without a single element being squandered. Guided by the director's all-encompassing vision and extraordinary eye for detail, the production unfolds with effortless musical elegance, spanning everything from the tiniest miniature to the most dizzying flights of imagination." (Hedda Jury)

 

Nominated for "Best Audio-visual design" (  Heddaprisen)

"A visual and musical feast, created through highly sophisticated techniques disguised as simple, analogue craftsmanship. An aesthetic tour de force that harnesses the full potential of the theatrical apparatus, conjuring an epic fable in which singers, musicians, actors, original music, and live video coalesce into a singular artistic vision." (Hedda Jury)

 

Nominated for "Best drama" (the National Ibsen Award 2026)

"A richly imaginative and philosophical drama in which insects look upon humankind, asking fundamental questions about our place in the natural world." (Ibsen Award Jury)

 

 

Critics (after World premiere, Arctic Arts Festival (opening performance 2025):

 

“I came in as a skeptic. I left as an enthusiast. Tore Vagn Lid’s The Trigger System is a stroke of genius.”

 — IHarstad ★★★★★★

 

“Like a Wagner opera […] you leave with the feeling of having encountered—and been challenged by—something extraordinarily monumental.”

— Harstad Tidende

 

“The Trigger System became a visual and musical feast, but also a challenge, a philosophical inquiry, and a theatrical tour de force.”

 — NRK

 

“Tore Vagn Lid’s new, grand-scale music theatre production The Trigger System proved to be a powerful experience and a major success. Choosing Lid and Transiteatret-Bergen to open the festival demanded artistic nerve, ambition, and a work that speaks to our times. The production delivers all this in abundance: a landmark music theatre event featuring a stellar ensemble, remarkable symbolism, and a socially critical force that grips both the intellect and the emotions.”

 — Harstad Tidende ★★★★★★

 

"A disturbing, breathtaking, brutally beautiful and deeply musical fable about humanity's ability to walk into its own traps."

 — Dagsavisen ★★★★★★

 

"A beautiful—and perhaps hopeful—allegory for our time."

 — Dagsavisen ★★★★★★

 

"A celebration of theatre itself, of the audience's experience, and of the unique illusions that only art can create."

 — Dagsavisen ★★★★★★

 

"A refreshingly analogue fable that connects the eternity of the past with the eternity of the future."

 — Norsk Shakespeartidsskrift

 

"Politically sharp and brilliantly performed by a cast of veteran actors."

 — Norsk Shakespeartidsskrift

 

"A tribute to the human imagination."

 — Klassekampen

 

"An experience that continues to resonate long after the curtain falls."

 — Scenekunst.no

 

"Combining traditional theatre with innovative storytelling, Lid invites audiences to reflect on society and the environment through imagination and creativity."

 — Scenekunst.no

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​​03:08:38 States of Emergency:

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“The work is driven by an operatic impulse, in which the chain of events is treated like a score—a second-by-second, minute-by-minute calibration that turns time itself into musical material.”(…)

 

“Rather than focusing on the perpetrator’s psychology, Lid insists on an operatic form in which the temporal progression is composed like a score. The dramaturgical structure becomes a musical structure—a precise, almost obsessive organization of the catastrophe in time.”(…)

 

(…)“Through its operatic disposition, the performance transforms time into music: events are measured, scored, and performed like a composition in which the seconds themselves become rhythm and structure.”

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Locacritica, Massimo Milella, Translated from Italian (https://www.locacritica.com/post/international-living-theater-festival

"Deafeningly powerful", Matti Saarela

"I have seen hundreds of plays, dance shows and performances during my life, but it was difficult to find anything comparable to this among the memories. Espoo Teatteri & had now redeemed its promise all at once. Yes, Finland's most international theater operates in Espoo, and the States of Emergency, which ended Skandiviikot on Sunday, is a real leap into the world of contemporary theater."
Matti Saarela, (https://www.kielipuolenpaivakirja.fi/ )

«There is only one performance you will ever need to see about 22nd of July, this one! »  Kari Frøysland, NRK, Norwegian National Broadcast (NO)

«A rare and impressive piece of art, masterfully conceived, and masterfully executed» Jan Landro, Dag og Tid​

«I could never imagine a minute-by-minute theatre performance about the terrorist attack on Norway July 22nd 2011, would be amongst the most meaningful performances I’ve ever seen in theatre»  Kari Frøysland, NRK

«In fact «03:08:38 States of emergency» may prove to be the most important artistic treatment of the terrorist attack on 22/7 ever»  Mode Steinkjer, Dagsavisen (NO)

«It seems Incredibly dramatic in all its minimalism, as much as we can`t bear to follow the neon green trail of led-bulbs through the landscape that indicates the ticking countdown of the drama by lighting up minute by minute. Whenever someone is killed, they light up in red.» Monna Ditmer, Politiken (DK)

«The fact that we sit together and follow the whole process minute by-minute, and are equally powerless in the face of actions and reactions, is a convincing undertaking in Tore Vagn Lid’s work» Casper Koeller - Sceneblog (DK)