"Just a show," yet so real

A performance where the distinction between play and reality disappears for a few hours, goosebumps rise and all the senses are triggered.

The show started in a way already 4 months ago, when a pop-up travel agency appeared in Sarpsborg. It was the performing arts company Særp Tropez that was behind this mysterious new establishment in Østre Bydel, which was only open for three days. Unaware of what one might encounter inside the doors, many people stepped out of their comfort zone to explore what “99 dream trips” were. One of these people was my mother. My mother is a woman who is very interested in, and loves, theater. She has been to many previous performances with Særp Tropez, and was therefore extra excited and curious when she found out about this pop-up travel agency. She entered the venue empty-handed with high shoulders and expectations, and came out with 4 tickets to the performance Særp Tropez: Quarter 99. This was a brilliant marketing strategy that really worked. Customers had been given a taste of what was in store through interactive theatre inside the travel agency, and tickets sold out in no time. Anyone who had been lucky enough to secure a ticket could now enjoy it from January to May. I was one of them.

When I showed up in May, excited and expectant, I had no idea what to expect. “Look for the tired mother of a toddler with three yellow bags and a stroller,” was the email I had received in advance. She gave me a yellow ribbon and a place to go. When I arrived, I met seven other people with the same color as me on the ribbon, and a character named Pelly (Gaute Askild Næsheim). The only thing that separated him from us was the yellow ribbon around our necks. That was how the rest of the performance was. We were not just an audience, we became part of the universe of Quarter 99 and all the stories we were presented with. Unlike traditional theaters, where there are clear actor roles and audience roles, we were involved in all the choices, events, ups and downs.

Pelly, a tired man with heavy baggage – in a double sense – took us into his life. We in the yellow group were to be his new network, after his third prison sentence. We were to guide, support and help him get back on track. This became a struggle for both him and us, as he was constantly torn between the normal life he longed for and the criminal life he had lived up to now. I experienced gaining insight into and understanding other people's inner conflicts as both powerful and valuable. It gave the performance extra depth, and something to reflect on after the performance ended.

We moved around the city, into apartments, cramped basement rooms, shops and backyards in the Eastern part of the city. This part of Sarpsborg is characterized by poverty, unemployment and a somewhat "shabby" environment. Særp Tropez, with the help of set design and costumes, had managed to recreate this in a very believable way.

We were presented with frightening situations, intimate actions and conversations, sad stories and many touching scenes. We experienced these moments both when we followed the "yellow storyline", but also when we shared our own thoughts and experiences in the group. The story was made even stronger by the actors and the group bringing what we had learned about each other into the rest of the evening's experiences.

I am fortunate enough to live a safe and sheltered life, and am not naturally exposed to such environments. Nevertheless, I found the performance to give me valuable insight into the fact that despite challenges and injustice, we humans have the ability to turn situations around and change our own destiny.

This was not a performance with musical numbers, fancy costumes or glitz and glam. It was the opposite. We were presented with "completely ordinary" lives with everyday problems, both small and large. That's what makes Særp Tropez so unique. They play on human compassion and empathy, and show us how tough reality can be. I felt joy, sadness, compassion, anger, shock, fear and despair. The fact that we were so close to the actors in their environment also intensified my feelings. If the same story had been presented on a traditional stage, the effect would not have been as strong. They also played on all our senses: rotten basement smells, frightening sounds and physical closeness with the actors. I actually ended up both receiving and giving shoulder massages. It probably sounds crazy, but this is an example of how interactive theater can go in all directions, and yet feel natural there and then. What's also so fun about interactive theater, both for the actors and the audience, is that each performance is unique. I could see the same performance again with a different group and have a completely different experience. The same goes for the actors. They have to follow their story, of course, but they still have a lot of room to take advice and input from us in the audience. This requires them to be on their toes and sharp at all times. One example of this is how Pelly learned the names of everyone in our group. This reinforced the feeling that we were not audience members. We were part of his life.

In the same way, other groups became part of other characters' lives. The different stories were seamlessly intertwined and gave us various hints along the way about how the small community was connected. It showed us how complex life is, and how much happens behind the facade. How we humans influence each other, but also how much we learn from each other. Særp Tropez: Quarter 99 was an enriching performance that opened my eyes to diversity, the importance of seeing situations from different perspectives and how important it is to respect others and to show humanity.