With this elegant rewriting of Hamlet, the woodcarver Gepetto (Tom Styve) drives a razor-sharp stake into the audience. At least the adult part of those who have come to see the stunning and original show Pinocchio is approaching its premiere.
In the past four years, Teater Innlandet has been a lot for some. But not too many enough.
At the same time that theater manager Thorleif Linhave Bamle has received critical acclaim for renewing Norwegian stage art and daring to go off the beaten path, he has been open about the fact that the financial framework has been tight.
Extraordinary compensation in the corona years saved most of the larger cultural centers and theaters from forced audience restrictions. But it did not succeed in preventing many people from changing their visiting patterns, and stopped going in droves to experience art and culture.
When the half-empty theater policy was replaced by price increases and expensive times, it became even more difficult to run a theatre. Linhave has been an audible and clear critical voice, which has pointed out that stagnant public support is being eaten up slowly, but certainly less so through inflation and cost growth. He has not received a hearing for either demands or prayers.
On Saturday, HA was able to reveal that the actors at the theater have been told that they must apply for new jobs when their terms expire next summer. The boss is open to operating without a permanent staff of actors.
Although Linhave says that the decision has nothing to do with the financial situation the theater is in, it obviously happens at the same time that he has to put in forceful measures to reverse the deficits that have hit the theater in 2022 and 2023.
Without the promise of so much as a CPI adjustment of the annual subsidy from the county council or other supporters, he does not have much choice. If the income does not increase, the financing of a theater that is both large and ambitious by Norwegian standards fails.
While many regional theaters choose to stage “safer” titles and more certain box-office successes, it has not looked like something Teater Innlandet wanted as a solution to the predicament.
The price to pay for the high artistic integrity may be less theater for people living in the interior.
Expensive and demanding logistics when large productions have to tour long distances, and a large technical and artistic staff also outside the performance periods, is a difficult combination.
Several functions were cut when 2024 started, and for the first time since 2010 the theater will soon have to manage without its most visible ambassadors, permanent actors. The marathon weekend Politically Correct theater festival has been canceled for this year.
And already the day after Pinocchio premieres, it leaves Hamar and will not return until 31 October.
It’s hard to build an audience this way.
This is a negative spiral that neither employees nor the public can be happy with. The quality of the family show Pinocchio is sky high, and should have drawn full audiences night after night in a culture-loving city like Hamar.
The snail in the play, played by Anne Guri Tvedt, says something appropriate: Tears are good. They clean the eyes and make us see better.
In a critical time for anyone competing with flesh and blood against cheaper imitations, it pays to make some conscious choices.
The theater needs us. And we need the theater.
