The search for a theater that can create or at least remedy a weathered public.

A distinctive feature of a functioning democracy is — and has always been — a functioning public sphere; a common and multi-voiced space for expression and dissent in relative balance between different actors and interests. The privatization of the public sphere that has been ongoing over time is now manifesting itself on a cultural “street level” as a concealment of that which cannot already be calculated risk-free in advance, by the algorithms of media houses and BI-educated cultural editors, as something “for the many”. The trend coincides with, and is reinforced by, the privatized networks of individual followers of social media: On the one hand, the absence of mentions, criticisms and public reflection. On the other, the (performing) arts’ dependence on cultural influencers’ ever-changing motivation to share (or not share) their alternative cultural journalism in private echo chambers. The need for new real public spheres, new spaces for expression and social exchange, is therefore not only politically necessary, it is also something deeply existential; a need that we believe will also become increasingly apparent as a deep-seated need in the times ahead. Groundbreaking experiences with “0.3.08.38 States of Exception” and “The Art of Making a Trap” have shown us how an expanded theatre space, with the will and ability to break with algorithm-driven schemes for effective storytelling, suspense and easily identifiable characters, can precisely find its relevance and power as a counter-voice to such a weathering of the public discourse. At the same time, a deliberately porous interaction between “artistic research” and “academic research” has shown a unique impact both in the expansion of the theatre space itself and in the development of the thinking and reflection that emerges from the darkness of theatre and makes its way into social discourse and other related forms of research and dissemination.

What we have here called "Consultations" is therefore motivated by a belief in the theatre as a kind of advanced "campfire" for reflection and multi-voiced exchange of opinions. Given a process where the erosion of the public sphere is accelerating in the years to come, such scenic forms of Conversing will have the potential precisely as something close to concrete utopias.

The concept already contains three dramaturgical building blocks: First, the importance of "hearing", in the sense of listening (not just watching) theatre. Then the importance of "hearing together", i.e. the difference between listening to something alone, or listening to it together with others. And finally — the possibility of through this to achieve, or create new communities and prepare the ground for new types of cohesion in a context of individualization and fragmentation. This applies not only externally, in the face of an audience, but also internally — at the ensemble level — where Tt-B wants to reinforce its strategies to facilitate transcendent "listening processes" between different "disciplines" and "specializations", between artists as well as between different types of researchers and research strategies. Here also lies the expansion and development of listening-post strategies as a golden opportunity.

Tore Vagn Lid

artistic director

Transit Theatre-Bergen