Artist talk after Thursday's performance.

Strangely comfortable. Blissful imbalance. A paradoxical and extended film experience. Even the most abstract feels physical and tactile in Verdensteatret's newest performance. The work is beautiful, poetic and striking.

These are a selection of words from the reviewers who experienced Verdensteatret's performance α ζ in August 2023. Now they have further developed this work and changed the name to Flat Sun. Rosendal Theatre is lucky enough to have the first performance of this new, expanded version. The changes are so extensive that when we present Flat Sun, it is like a premiere.

In this performance, light is in focus. The artists have been on a research trip to Mexico, where the relationship between light and life has been the core of exploration in gardens and parks in and outside Mexico City. Among other things, the trip has resulted in a performance that must be considered an extended cinema experience, a concert and a kind of guided meditation at the same time. Among other things.

Here you meet a breathing sculpture. Here a "noisy silent film orchestra" arises (reviewer Hedda Fredly's words) and performs live music with the help of both water drops, violin, stone and tape players. Apparently it's a movie starring as the main character. Or is it nature herself?

In any case, the agave plant has a central role, and it is around it that we gather for a form of meditation. The plant, which is widespread in Mexico, lives for many, many years - but just before it dies, it suddenly forms a tall flower spike of 20-30 metres, which can resemble a power pole. This plant has inspired the artists, and the following poetic program text is at the same time Verdensteatret’s own program text - and instructions for a ritual:

On the eve of the great operation, let your movement be guided by the sun. Study the relationship between light and life. Note that the plants absorb the far-red but reflect the infra-red. When the agave plant is fully grown it sends forth a giant stem the size of a telegraph pole. This signals that the plant is dying. Do not touch it other than with your eyes, but leave it as it is until the next day, the day of the operation. Start to cut it when the sun begins to rise in the hemisphere. The pole you take to a metal worker, who must forge the steel sharp enough to cut the throat of a sacrifice. Fasten the steel as covers for the ends of the pole. You then procure a loadstone, which you heat to magnetize the two steel points. Observe that the surroundings have started to act strange. The sun is a yellow metal disc. Hanging in space as a brass-shiny light. A slowly rotating golden coin. The invisible light is sieving into the visible. The firm ground becomes like the ocean. If you have performed all correctly your body will be unstable, silent movie-like. Let the flat sun fall over you.