In order to get the acts in this drama for stage and society in order, we have to turn back the clock to autumn 2018. Then the play “Ways of Seeing” was performed at the Black Box theater in Oslo. A total of 725 people bought tickets for the screening. In the spring of 2019, Justice Minister Tor Mikkel Wara resigned, after roommate Laila Bertheussen was charged and later sentenced to prison for one year and eight months for “attacks on democracy, arson and threats”. Several of those who were involved in the theater production were reported to the police and charged, before the cases were dropped. All this as a direct result of this foresight. The completely unique aftermath shows networks between the media and politicians in a way that the participants could hardly have dreamed of. Never before has a play played on a Norwegian stage received such an afterthought. And never before has so much been written in the Norwegian media about a play. Both parts with a good margin. So: Do we need a book about this now, several years later? Hakeslepp, spring 2019 I had my doubts myself, but my answer after reading through the roughly 400-page long book is a resounding yes. What makes the strongest impression in the book is the documentation of how the play was interpreted and condemned by people who had not seen it. Laila Bertheussen became a witness to the truth: The actors Hanan Benammar and Sara Baban had illegally entered people’s gardens and filmed in their houses, then slapped them on the theater stage. When I went to see the play myself in early summer 2019, I was offered powerful impressions and an ethical dilemma of the type: How far can artists go to get their message across? I sat and gaped. Was this what people had hoped for? My own house is more exposed on Google Maps, and there are even people’s addresses there, something that is not shown on stage. There are no people in the picture, and you are not looking in through the window. Nothing was illegal. But why did they absolutely have to film all these houses? It was the photography that got the case rolling, and several of the authors in the book explain the background, which goes something like this: One of the premises for the play is that surveillance and negative publicity of immigrants. and especially by Muslims, growing up under the racism in society. Racism, in turn, makes it easier to implement a strict immigration and asylum policy. An increasingly intensive surveillance of Muslims reinforces the feeling of not belonging The idea of the famous film project was to turn the surveillance against those who monitor and their sponsors. Two young women from Algeria/France and Syria turn the camera and look back at people from politics, media and surveillance who make life difficult for them. Provocations and proportions It is possible to discuss both the premises and scenic means in this play, which has a clear political agenda and is looking to provoke. But, as the book shows, factual errors entered the big mill from the start. The media, which is supposed to check the facts and look for power in the seams, swallowed information from Rita Karlsen in the Human Rights Service, Tor Mikkel Wara, Laila Bertheussen, Ingvil Smines and Christian Tybring-Gjedde to a disturbing extent. The criticism also affects me myself, who saw with my own eyes that the media version of “Ways of Seeing” was completely out of proportion, without reporting it either in the comments section or elsewhere. The most provocative thing in the play is not the house facades, but how Benammar and Baban bring out experiences of how vulnerable you can feel even in a safe country like Norway. For this they use a wide range of tools: poetry, music, experiences, dreams and stories both about colonialism and attempts to realize political utopias. The sum of all this is a theater with many themes and contexts that filter into each other. Should be a syllabus Back to the book. In “I was going to say storm. The book on Ways of Seeing” is composed of authors, critics, people with experience from anti-racist work and several of the participants with interpretations, defences, attacks, explanations, history, manifestos, background knowledge and documentation. The latter also in the form of a collage of newspaper articles and comment fields. The entire theater text is at the end, and yes, still images of the famous house facades are also included. There are also several quotes here. The title “I should say storm” is taken from a text by Aimé Césaire, author from Martinique. It is a blissful mess where topics, documentation and party entries are filtered together. In this sense, the book mirrors the play that is the hub of the entire story. The book has little new information. What is new is the collection itself, the interpretations, afterthoughts and articles written by outsiders who are sympathetic. It is thought-provoking to read about Baban and Benammar’s experiences. Theater critic Lillian Bikset delivers a thorough and well-thought-out analysis. Ketil Lund writes ramblingly and self-deprecatingly, and reflects on the fact that he grew up in the neighborhood of several of the villas on the screen, and went apple picking with Kåre Willoch. But he also provides scarce and disturbing information about surveillance in Norway, and it is clear that Prime Minister Erna Solberg could not talk about the people behind the piece as she did: The collages of comments and newspaper articles from the entire aftermath are also strong. Here we have a book that is primarily important for media people, commentators, observers, politicians and citizens. Not for everyone to adopt the book’s way of looking, but to reflect on where one sees society, power relations and yes, existence from. news reviews Photo: Forlaget Oktober Title: “I should say storm.” The book on Ways of Seeing” Editors: Pia Maria Roll, Hanan Benammar and Sara Baban With texts from: Hege Ulstein, Deise Faria Nunes, Asbjørn Grønstad, Sverre Knudsen, Mohamed Abdi, Kai Strittmatter, Paal Bjelke Andersen, Lillian Bikset, Andam Aziz, Natasha Maria Llorens, Birgitte Sigmundstad and Ketil Lund. Genre: Non-fiction Publisher: October Number of pages: 440 Date: August 2022 Hi! I am the chief fiction critic at news. Feel free to read my book reviews of “Våkenetter” by Christine Nitter, “Matrix” by Lauren Groff or “Invictus” by Sunniva Lye Axelsen.
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“I was going to say storm. The book on Ways of Seeing” – Reviews and recommendations
