Exploring themes around gender roles and self-image has been a recurring thread in Katja B. Lindeberg’s artistic work, addressed in several performances for both children and adults. With the audience success "Bare en våt munn" (2018), Lindeberg focused on women. This is the sequel: A performance about socially constructed masculinity and male experiences related to being a man in contemporary Norway.

In this performance, we are presented with a mix of gender symbolism, pop culture clichés, and honest confessions to the audience about what it means to be a man today. Three male actors in a clichéd mancave, with a female facilitator studying them. In this laboratory setting, they cannot escape each other’s, the audience’s, or the woman’s gaze. The male role is turned upside down, and the performance explores vulnerability, exposure, expectations, and prejudices.

The concept creates vulnerability and exposure for the men. The ideals and expectations are many, created by both the men themselves, the woman, and society. Inside the mancave, they cannot escape each other’s, the audience’s, or the woman’s gaze, and the male role is turned upside down.

The text material for the performance is directly drawn from over twenty personal in-depth interviews and conversations with men of various ages and backgrounds, as well as the company’s own investigations. They attended a men's conference in Berlin, participated in a drag king workshop, went hunting, built a mancave, and talked about feelings – all to get closer to understanding what it means to be a man today.

The performance premiered at Rosendal Theatre in 2023 and was shown at Black Box Theatre in 2024, receiving particularly positive feedback from a young audience. Young men expressed a longing to share experiences related to the male role, and the performance was seen as very important. After recent years of increased awareness around representation, minorities, and power structures in society, we are increasingly reflecting on how we, as individuals and the groups we belong to, interact with others. But despite new discussions around the male role and men’s mental health, we find that challenges related to men’s gender roles can be forgotten, trivialised, or create polarization.

Artist talk wednesday january 29.

After the show there will be held an artist talk with artist and director Katja Brita Lindeberg. The artist talk will be moderated by director of Trøndelag Senter for Samtidskunst, Carl Martin Rosenkilde Faurby.