Kandisia

A fun and playful theater performance for children that both involves the audience and deals with a hot topic.

Kandisia is the name of the best country in the world, and in this performance the audience is on the floor with the actors. There is no static separation between the stage and the auditorium and in an interactive idiom, the audience is invited to participate and to think out loud about how we should handle the authorities' forced return of asylum seekers. The audience is divided into groups and through play and role play, the children and actors all become part of the Kandyan population.

In the performance, we meet Kakadue, a girl who has fled to the country of Kandisia with her family, fleeing the war-torn country of Syrimando. They are granted asylum and the right to stay in Kandisia, and Kakadue learns Kandisian and grows up almost like any other Kandisian child.

But Kakadue has a deep secret. Kakadue's father has lied about the country they come from. It turns out that they don't actually come from Syrimando, but from the poor neighboring country of Nugrinera, which is not affected by war. The secret is revealed by mistake and in the middle of the Kandisian National Day celebrations, Kakadue is told that she and her family will be thrown out of Kandisia.

Based on the Norwegian government's practice of forcibly returning asylum-seeking children, Flaatenbjørk kompani has created a performance that problematizes the fairness of children who have lived much of their lives in Norway being thrown out of the country.

The production has been developed in collaboration with SceSam, a workshop for interactive dramaturgies. The production is a co-production with Teater Innlandet, Turneorganisasjonen for Hedmark and Dks i Oppland.

Supported by: Spenn