Swedish performing arts to Cyprus!

Intercult is proud to support the Swedish production “Oh shit, we are the same!” which will be presented next week at the international festival Roots & Routes in Nicosia, Cyprus. The festival, organized by THOC (Cyprus Theatre Organisation), is part of the European project Theatre in Palm, which aims to create new opportunities for emerging performing artists and promote an inclusive and diverse theatre.

“Oh, shit we are the same!” is created by Swedish artists Isak Nordström, Mille Bostedt and Sofi Orem Skoglund, who together form the performing arts collective Transformers Scenkonst. The group is exploring new ways of creating and presenting performing arts with a particular focus on youth and non-normative perspectives.

Sofi Orem Skoglund describes the motivation for the theme by saying […] “I am interested in who we see on stage, whose stories we tell and what choices we make to tell them.”

The performance is a collage work based on authentic interviews with young transgender people. Through a mix of Shakespeare monologues, musical numbers, everyday scenes and spoken word, a strong and moving stage experience is created where the audience gets an insight into the participants’ thoughts on identity, future dreams and representation on stage. The work weaves together the personal and the political and opens up a larger discussion about how we can create a more inclusive and fair performing arts world.

The purpose of the performance is described as: “It was a workshop project where we worked on the premise that we each interviewed young trans people, where the youngest was 13 and the oldest 26, and then met up, without having seen each other’s material, to create a 30-minute performance in a week. It was a playful and unpretentious exploration based on something all our interviewees had said independently of each other:

That they wanted to see trans people where being trans was not the whole thing with them.”

The Roots & Routes Festival brings together theatre companies and artists from all over Europe and offers a platform for international exchange, creative work and professional development. By participating in the festival, Swedish performing artists have the opportunity to make important contacts and share their art with a wider audience.

Read more about the festival here: THOC Festival

Read more about the show here: Oh shit, we’re the same!

Read more about Theatre in Palm here. Theatre in Palms website

The performance is supported by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee and the EU.