The Vesturport Story

Gísli Örn Garðarsson Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir & Ingvar E. Sigurðsson take on Kafka's Metamorphosis & leap on to the Silver Screen.

To Icelanders Vesturport needs no introduction. They are Iceland's most inventive young theatre company. Conquering Iceland was child's play to them, so they moved on in the world. From the birth of this creative collective in 2001 Vesturport has approached its projects with original thought and work methods bringing spellbinding productions to the audiences. The aim is to find every project's own voice, style, time and space without forcing a play into a space where its story and characters will not be fully understood. In this way the ensemble will always be looking for different and provocative ways to present a story through dialogue and visuals with the raw and sincere force that drives the artists in the company. They come together to try on new ideas, new pieces, new authors and new ways of producing theatre. They seem to have set a new tone in Icelandic theatre. They bring young people to the theatre, both on stage and off. No task is too complicated, nothing is impossible. Vesturport is to Icelandic theatre what Sigur Rós is to Icelandic music. They have never tried to be commercial; however, they have been immensely popular. Every project they approach has been a victory in itself. They have been very successful, to say the least.

Vesturport was founded by Gísli Örn Garðarsson, Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir and Ingvar E. Sigurðsson, one of Icelands most beloved and established actors, among other actors graduating from acting school at the same time as Nína and Gísli. The three of them are now in London where they take on Kafkas Metamorphosis at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Gísli is also co-director and adapter alongside David Farr, Lyrics artistic director. The music is composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis who worked with Vesturport before on their original take on Woyzeck. Metamorphosis will be premiered on October 4th. Before the opening night Gísli and Nína will attend the premiere of Vesturports first venture into films with Children. Children and Parents are two films directed by Ragnar Bragason. Children will compete at the San Sebastian film festival in September and later this year Parents, which stars Ingvar among others will be premiered.

In its short lifetime Vesturport has been involved with many projects and staged numerous productions. The Vesturport international story began when Gísli staged Romeo and Juliet in Reykjavík where it became a huge hit before it travelled to the London Young Vic Theatre and ended up at the Playhouse on the West End. "It has all been a bit accidental, beginning with a childhood friend of mine spotting Romeo and Juliet in Iceland and simply saying: Lets get some people from the London theatre scene to see the production and try and bring it over," says Gísli. They have striven to create theatre that is as enjoyable to perform as it is to watch, using hair-raising aerobatics to electrifying effect. In Romeo and Juliet, they leaped, bounded and somersaulted across the stage. Vesturport then mounted a spectacular modern adaptation of Woyzeck; the show had actors swimming in glass tanks, flowers being shot like arrows from the ceiling, with the lead character dangling upside down on a trapeze, singing a very Nice Cave-style song while swinging over the audiences. On Gíslis request Nick Cave and Warren Ellis actually wrote the music for the production. Woyzeck was part of the Young Genius program at the Barbican Theatre in London and was also staged at Borgarleikhúsið in Reykjavík and is due to appear in Germany, Holland and Korea in the years to come.

London Circus Nights

Gísli was then invited to act in Nights at the Circus staged at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Although Gísli will always claim Vesturport is a collaborative effort and that the working relationship he has with his fellow artists is the most important to him, he is the leader of the gang. From his direction of Romeo and Juliet and Woyzeck to his involvement with Nights at the Circus that established him as an actor on the London scene, he has always been at the forefront of the group. In London hes not just the Icelander visiting town any more. During Gíslis stay in London with Nights at the Circus he learned a lot about English theatre. The production ran for three months, eight shows a week, first in London and then all around England. "It was a very genuine experience. The director Emma Rice and her company, Knee High, are very good theatre makers and have a very healthy attitude towards the craft of the theatre. They are very focused on the storytelling aspects of what is being done and very disciplined in how they develop the characters. It was a very hands-on process, where everything is very much created in the rehearsal room with everyone involved during every step of the journey. It was a very demanding process and a good reminder of how far you can get with the right ingredients of people and focus," explains Gísli.

Kafkas Metamorphosis

While Gísli was performing in Nights at the Circus, David Farr, the artistic director of the Lyric Hammersmith had just taken over the theatre and suggested they should try to do something together. "We very quickly found out that we had a common sense and taste for the theatre so it sounded interesting and appealing. We came up with different ideas of different stories to stage. The idea was originally that he would adapt a story that I would direct. Then he suggested we should do Kafkas Metamorphosis. He also insisted that I should be in it, and therefore we should adapt it and direct it together," says Gísli about how he got involved in Metamorphosis.

This isn't the first time Gísli directs and acts in the same play. In Romeo and Juliet, Gísli was both the director and lead actor. "That was an actors driven decision to be in a production that would have certain physicality in it. I had a very strong opinion on how I would want the production to be and how the emphasis in the storytelling should be focused, which is why I chose to direct it as well. It is the same with Metamorphosis. I play the character of Gregor Samsa, and it is a character that is very challenging. I have a very strong idea on how to stage this story as a play, which is how I become a co-director. For me it is always about the collective work anyway."

We asked why he feels so strongly about Metamorphosis. "Metamorphosis is an amazing story about peoples reactions to a situation when a family member is different from the rest of the family. It is a theme the world witnesses over and over again; when people all of a sudden feel that someone next to them has changed and is no longer a member of the unity. It begins small and then gets out of control. Like the Holocaust in WWII or the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda or former Yugoslavia. In Metamorphosis the son has transformed into a cockroach. Obviously a metaphor for how the family sees him. At first they try to live with it, but little by little they lose their tolerance and lock him up and mistreat him. I feel its an important story, a story I was very much up for telling and being involved with."

The Icelandic Invasion

Although Vesturport has been bringing their productions to London ever since they first brought Romeo and Juliet to the Young Vic theatre, this is the first time that so many Icelanders have been involved with a theatre production that is essentially British, with Gísli, Nína and Ingvar acting and Gíslis co-directing, they also brought the set designer Börkur Jónsson on board.

David Farr had seen Romeo and Juliet and Woyzeck, so we soon discovered that it would be ideal to get Nína and Ingvar on board as well and then some English actors. "They are all fantastic actors. And I would probably never direct and act unless I was surrounded by such genuine artists. We all have the same aim. The mix of the actors is proving to work out really well. We bring something from our culture and the English actors bring something from their culture. So I guess its a learning experience for everyone. Of course, it is all in English so we are working very intensively on our English. Nevertheless, the main focus is on the story and I believe that the details of the language are secondary to everything else. I always work with Börkur on the set design. We have an excellent work relationship and get easily carried away together. We cant wait for when we get a massive budget to spend on a set," says Gísli, always the optimist. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis wrote the music for Metamorphosis. When making Woyzeck, Gísli got the idea to have Nick Cave write the music so he simply wrote him an email. To make a long story short Mr. Cave did the job and apparently was very happy with the result. Cave brought former fellow Bad Seeds member Warren Ellis along for the project. "I have been fortunate to work with great artists such as Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and the Bad Seeds," is all Gísli has to say about them joining forces again.

Children and Parents: One Project, Two Films

From the day Vesturport was created in 2001 they have been very busy producing theatre and touring the world. There has been little time left over for entering the world of films. However, Children and Parents are two films that are the offspring of a fruitful relationship between director Ragnar Bragason and Vesturport. "We have always been very keen to create films in Vesturport and I guess it was always a question of time rather than whether it would happen or not. Ragnar approached us, he wanted to make a film with us and we were instantly up for it," says Gísli. Children will premiere on the 9th of September and Parents later this year. "There will definitely be more films to come, some are in development and we encourage anyone with a script out there to send it to us. One never knows," Gísli says casually. Perhaps this is exactly the attitude that has got Vesturport so far. One never knows where the next opportunity lies.

The method that Ragnar wanted to use was different from what works out for the Icelandic Film Fund. "We never had a script, which is vital for receiving grants so its been a tough ride on the financial side. But we decided to move on without adapting to the regulations set by funds. We were eager to make the films. We got a post-production grant but that is only a small portion of the costs. There is so much work and effort that lies behind each film." Perhaps another example of how Vesturport creates their own rules for making a project and sticks with it. Six actors started out as the core team for the films. These six actors are also the films producers and writers along with Ragnar. Gísli continues to explain the work process. "Each actor would develop his or her own character and do a lot of research based around the surroundings of the character. We worked on the characters for months and went really deep into their worlds. We would then meet up with Ragnar and improvise situations with the other actors and little by little a storyline would evolve. When we went into shooting, we had a story line but no dialogue. Most of the dialogue is improvised on set."

Coming Soon... to a Theatre near You

The film Children stars Nína Dögg playing a single mum with four kids, Gísli plays a debt collector from the underground scene and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson plays a semi-retarded man living with his mum. "I couldnt make up my mind on what sort of a character to work on so I chose to create twins, one that was a debt collector and the other a man who isolated himself from the outside world. The debt collector was the stronger character in the editing room, so he has become one of the main characters in the film," explains Gísli. Parents star Ingvar Sigurðsson, who also acts in Metamorphosis, plays a dentist who wants to have kids of his own, Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir, plays a woman trying to get away from her past whilst trying to re-establish her relationship with her son and Víkingur Kristjánsson plays a divorced husband trying to bring his family back together. For some reason, in the editing room, three characters fit very well into one story and the other three fit another story. "So we added to our shooting schedule and focused our minds on creating two separate films," says Gísli. And thus Children and Parents were born.

Children was introduced at the film festival in Gothenburg earlier this year as a work in progress, where it received a warm response and was chosen to compete for the new directors award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival this September. Offers to attend film festivals around the world have started to pile up, which gives a very promising head start. "We all had a very good time working on the films. Ragnar is a very good director. Fantastic. He is very good at keeping the motivation for his actors at a very high and professional level and it is incredible that he has maintained his sanity during the whole process. Because of our lack of financing it is a project where very much work falls upon the director. He maintained focus, never lost his determination and was completely on top of it all," says Gísli who has nothing but praise for his director, with whom he has collaborated on several occasions. "Ragnar has done an extraordinary job. For me as an actor its great to work with him. He knows me in and out. He knows when Im a wanker and when its real and I always trust him 100%, Gísli says to emphasize the determination. I would read the phonebook with him if he asked me." It is this determination, loyalty and respect for one another that has perhaps got Vesturport so far.

The Reykjavík Underground Scene

Children and Parents provide a sharp view on Icelandic modern society in a powerful but heartfelt way. Gísli, as the other actors, did massive research for the role of a character from a completely different world. When asked whether he thinks there is another Icelandic reality that is hidden from the picture-perfect society that Icelanders often believe they live in, Gísli states, "there is definitely another Icelandic reality than the one we are mostly used to. There is a very violent and rough underground scene. It has probably always been there and it is a world of its own. I believe there are actually many worlds in our society and they are probably all equally isolated from one another. During my research what I encountered was much tougher than I would have thought. There are some tough motherfuckers out there that I would not want to owe anything. I met some of those guys, and they were all pretty nice and gentle. I suppose they take their business seriously and will collect what they set out to collect no matter what."

Gísli further describes his thoughts on whether Reykjavík has changed, "The research gave me a different view of Reykjavík. But its luckily not my world and I dont think people should begin to freak out about Reykjavík being a different city. The underground scene does exist; it is violent and brutal but I think the chances of us normal people getting caught up in it are minimal and would be purely accidental. Thats the sort of stuff that happens to the common day hero on the big screen," perhaps referring to himself.

London Calling?

Gísli graduated from the Icelandic Theatre School some five years ago, around the same time Vesturport was created. "I seriously thought that it was all great, the only shame would be that studying in Iceland would restrict the possibilities of working abroad. So obviously it has been a very exciting and much unexpected ride, he says about Vesturports journey to London and other parts of the world. At the same time it has been hard work and would not have happened without a huge effort by a lot of people."

When asked if he would be happy just working in Iceland at this point, or whether he will stick around in London, he says, "It is not a real ambition of mine to pursue a career of any sort abroad. I am very happy doing work in London and elsewhere. Its adventurous, you meet a lot of new people with different ideas in the theatre and it all adds up to who you are and how you work I guess. However, it's all about the work itself. I always get inspired by the same sort of things, and they have nothing to do with an individual career as an actor or director. It usually happens when I sit down with some fellow artists, mainly from Vesturport, and get into discussions about what stories to tell and in what way. Those discussions will often end up in a production of some sort and thats what I like being part of. Thats where my focus is, so luckily I am free from being on a solo career path. And that offers me fantastic freedom. Its like being happily married." And so it seems. Perhaps Vesturport is just one happy marriage.

Text by Hanna Björk Valsdóttir

Photo Börkur Jónsson