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"The Mute". Music: Janove Ottesen. Scenario: Christian Eriksen Actors: Christian Eriksen, Nina Ellen Ødegård, Matias Kuoppala. Scenographer: Arne Nøst. Choreographer: Thérèse Markhus. Costume Designer: Christina Lovery. Video Animation: Reidar Richardsen. Director: Christian Eriksen and Arne Nøst. Instrumentation: Gisle Kverndokk. Conductor: Nick Davies.
Thirty years ago, Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz wrote sexual replies "When you say nothing at all". There, they sing about the smiles heard, the warmth of a hug and all that is not said, but that we always understand: "You say it better when you do not say anything at all". About the same idea, which can be said a lot without speaking, is the basic idea of "The Mute", a show to see absolutely.
Janove Ottesen and Christian Eriksen took on a daunting challenge. They created "The Mute", a symphonic mute theater? 70 minutes with symphonic orchestra and theater without reply. Original, and at the same time, a retrograde tribute to silent movie heroes such as Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and to composers who had to speak before the microphones came in and spoiled the fun.
"The Mute" is Janove Ottesen's first symphonic work. He wrote with a broad brush, clear and sometimes slightly irresistible. Silent theater needs – and gets – music that amplifies, helps and emphasizes Eriksen and Ødegård. There are great emotions, lightning and thunder, great romantic embroidery, struggles, love, tears and a burst of teeth. Ottesen begins to have some kind of signature in his love affair with big ensembles. The orchestra is also used intelligently for both sound scenes, as a guest in a restaurant, wind band and in other complementary roles.
100 things to do
SSO creates what is good, and they do well. Ottesen chooses and mixes, steals and borrows and has done a quality work which, in this context, is perfectly suited to the two stars of the evening.
The music follows Tom and Jenny (pun, I think) throughout their love life. Engage, boredom, quarrels, shawls, jealousy, indifference, flirtation, remorse, memories and not at all. Christian Eriksen (Tom) and Nina Ellen Ødegård (Jenny) are used to the whole register, but not to the mouth. Both are great, simple and straightforward. It's a good 70 minutes, a coordination dance of the rare that is extremely demanding and revealing. 100 things should beat at the same time, mainly a couple and nineteen. We can probably write some minor inaccuracies on the Premiere account.
Good, good, excellent, brilliant
Eriksen and Ødegård are remarkably good, as they alternate nine different scenes of life and short and old transition scenes. In 70 minutes, we have sympathy for both, for their history and all recognizable situations. Something is high energy octane, other parts are more subtle and allow you to think. They are painful when it's painful, fun when it's going well, have a brilliant chemistry between them and play in a nice, elegant and Spartan scenography with a beautiful video projection on a big heart, placed between the actors and the orchestra.
"The Mute" is a small opera without song, a bit of old-fashioned joke humor, a bit of musical theater, cartoons and a lot of silent movies. Director and scenographer Arne Nøst has made small, efficient shots that work very well, such as Odegård's disappearance figures. The costumes also do a good job and Matias Kuoppala is good for the little refreshing bonuses. Many small pieces of puzzle are assembled for a pleasant performance, fun, touching, impressive and easy to execute.
Speak without saying anything
You must bring "The Mute" with you because you will not be able to see it anymore. Did Janove Ottesen reach his peak of creative symphony on the first try? Barely. Is it a little messy to play silent movies with a whole orchestra in the background? Yes, let's go. "The Mute" took four years to develop, and there are certainly things here and there with which we could have worked more. But the performance is delicious from the start, it looks good and sounds good. When a form of expression – the conversation tool – is removed, the others are magnified. Facial expressions, small movements, body work, funny bones, use of simple accessories. Eriksen and Ødegård are sometimes fantastic to talk without saying anything.
The job is solid, and not least: Christian Eriksen and Nina Ellen Ødegård manage to become more than technically good actors, well coordinated, well choreographed and precise. Tom and Jenny will be a couple for whom we will have sympathy, with which we can laugh, cry and miss at the end of the 70 minutes. They remind us to live and love as much as we can, nothing less.
You should bring "The Mute" with you. It's an original and well executed idea that really brings life to the old cliché "you say it's better when you do not say anything at all".
A modest but warm farewell, comments Aftenbladet
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