It is such that you never quite know what to expect when choreographer, director and playwright Alan Lucien Øyen comes up with a new vision. Often it’s funny, mostly it’s spot on. One thing is certain: He is good at surprises. In a way, that has become his way of working. RISK PROJECT: Øyen has been resident choreographer at The Norwegian Opera since 2013, where he has staged several performances over the years. “Nothing Personal” is a risk project that was completed under time pressure during the Øyen. Photo: Unni Sande / Den Norske Opera So when the Opera writes on its website that work on the text started a week and a half before the start of rehearsals, it is probably true. The opera has been clear: “Nothing Personal” is an extensive risk project. And I also don’t think it’s the most successful project Øyen has done – although it has many, many nice winks. Because you can’t call it ballet. Maybe more theatre, but not quite that either. Filmic dance-music-theatre, maybe. Scenography magic Shortly into the screening, it becomes clear that the music is the basis for “Nothing Personal”. You can hear it, and you can see it in the way the story is told, how it tempts you to follow the music in the many episodes that play out. The music, written by Hollywood composer Alexandre Desplat, is grand and luscious. Desplat has written music for films by Wes Anderson, as well as for the last two Harry Potter films. And with cinematic music of this format, it is no wonder that Øyen let the music drown out the text in several of the scenes. He himself told Dagsrevyen that the screening was “a theater performance that imitates a film”. The thing with the over-deafening actually works well if you’re in the game. HOLLYWOOD COMPOSER: Alexandre Desplat is interviewed in Dagsrevyen. The music and scenography are the massive elements in the presentation, the dance and the game seem to be shaped from this very thing. Lucky then that the scenography is a value all its own that comes with constant surprises and constantly creates new spaces. Walls, doors and entire tableaus rise from the gently sloping pine scene. It is a beautiful and crazy construction that Åsmund Færavaag has created for “Nothing Personal”. And the scenography works well to hook the audience, push the vision further, make the spectators curious about what is to come. At times it is pure set design magic. Missing the dance Still, I manage to miss the dance. In the aesthetic space created by music, scenography and lighting, a theater unfolds. BOUQUET OF STORIES: Several rooms are opened in “Nothing Personal” where you meet everything from a drug-addicted mother to an elderly academic in crisis. Photo: Erik Berg We meet an alcoholic mother who misses her dead boy, an elderly academic who has had a stroke and is about to lose herself, a depressed elderly woman who is forced to try different coping strategies (which she does not master ). Several of the shoe dancers come from Øyen’s company Winter Guests, but the dancers are also set to be shoe dancers. And even if they fix it well, it is not what they are best at. At times the lines are stilted, it is difficult to see where in the character they are attached. But again: They cope well. And again: It’s just that they are the best at dancing. The truly liberating eye blinks are where the dancers get to indulge in choreographies that show the level this company holds. Whether it’s in ensemble scenes or in duets, the dance scenes are the best room this vision creates. Then it’s fine. Then you can just let the text (of which there is a lot) go on and on, listen to the melody in Kate Pendry’s beautiful voice, let the Desplat music push you in and let the dancers express the loneliness and freedom the play is about. Too much, too far Because it is full-on foresight, not least in words. If one drills down to the core, it is loneliness that is at stake, perhaps more than externality, because the externality the foresight shows is of a certain class. The people we meet are wallowing in the mud psychologically, but not physically. The expression is too smooth for that, too pretty. You don’t get over people that easily – other than for the old and depressed Ellen, beautifully played by Andrew Wale. FILM EXPERIENCE: In “Nothing Personal”, the dancers have become just as much actors. Here they get to tell about people on the outside of society both through dance and theatre. Photo: Erik Berg “Nothing Personal” ranges from Ovid’s metamorphoses to today’s KI. It is about the digital human and the algorithms that make us lonely in our rabbit holes. The eye tempts to say: Look what it does to us! But the foresight is too long for him to hit on this well. The ending, where you get to see the fantastic stage machinery, is at the same time so clichéd that you sit and wonder. The stage becomes a kind of memorial garden combined with dancers and shoe dancers who translate emojis into text and come up with internet expressions such as “All I ever wanted was to love and be loved”. I knew that from the start. Øyen and his team deliver a grandiose and aesthetic vision that does not quite hit the mark this time. news reviews Photo: Unni Sande / The Norwegian Opera Title: “Nothing Personal” By: Alan Lucien Øyen Where: The Norwegian Opera & Ballet Date: 12 October–2. November 2023 Choreography and direction: Alan Lucien Øyen Choreographic co-creation: Daniel Proietto Music: Alexandre Desplat Text: Andrew Wale/Alan Lucien Øyen Scenography: Åsmund Færavaag Costumes: Ingrid Nylander Lighting and video design: Martin Flack Sound design: Mathias Grønsdal Musical direction: Solrey Cast : The National Ballet, Opera Orchestra, Kate Pendry, Daniel Proietto, Anton Skrzypiciel, Andrew Wale, Yvonne Øyen, Whitney Jensen, Nora Augustinius, Youngseo Ko, Nae Nishimura Skaar, Anaïs Touret, Emma Lloyd, Aarne Kristian Ruutu, Douwe Dekkers, Silas Henriksen, Alex Cuadros Joglar, Jonathan Olofsson, Ole Johannes Slåttebrekk, Simon McNally, Emma Portner, Yoshifumi Inao.
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“Nothing Personal” in the Opera – Reviews and recommendations
