Archive NEXT 2020

Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex

Alexander Roberts (United Kingdom) & Ásrún Magnúsdóttir (Iceland)

Minimum age 12+
50 minutes
POSTPONED TO 27.11.21 AT BUDASCOOP KORTRIJJK

No theme in the history of civilisation has been more often sung, described or pictured than love and sex. This is also the case in youth culture. But how often do young people themselves get to speak about this subject ? For their projects curator Alexander Roberts and choreographer Ásrún Magnúsdóttir have worked together with teenagers for years and decided to give them a platform for a subject they seldom talk about with adults. With musician and composer Teitur Magnússon they started up The Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex, a musical show that has since travelled around the world.

They are nine, the Icelandic singers. In every guest town they invite local youngsters to write and sing songs together with them. These songs are based – sometimes hesitatingly, sometimes shamelessly and broadly beaming – on their own romantic and sexual experiences. Thus they sing about virgins and 'bitches', budding curiosity and gnawing pangs of love. In this melodious ode to the coming-of-age love and sexuality are represented in all forms and colours.

For years the Icelandic Ásrún Magnúsdóttir and the Brit Alexander Roberts have found each other in joint dance and performance projects in which they work together with people who are not very often presented on stage. Their work, which focuses on co-creation and participation, has been awarded several prizes in Iceland and is also applauded in a growing number of theatres in Europe.

CONCEPT & CREATION Ásrún Magnúsdóttir and Alexander Roberts / MUSICALLY DIRECTED AND COMPOSED WITH Teitur Magnússon / CO-AUTHORS AND PERFORMERS Lísbet Sveinsdóttir, Marta Ákadóttir, Salóme Júlíusdóttir, Ísafold Kristín, Katla Sigurðardóttir Snædal, Kolfinna Ingólfsdóttir, Óliver Ali, Uloma Osuala, Una Barkadóttir, Karen Nordquist Ragnarsdóttir, Egill Andrason, Haukur Guðnason, Hanna Gréta Jónsdóttir, Sverrir Gauti Svavarsson og Karólína Einarsdóttir / CHOIR-CONDUCTORS Sigríður Soffía Hafliðadóttir and Aron Steinn Ásbjarnarson / PREMIERED Meteor Festival, BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen, Norway and Reykjavík Dance Festival, Tjarnarbío, Reykjavík, Iceland. / CO-PRODUCED BY BIT Teatergarasjen, Teenagers in Reykjavík, Reykjavík Dance Festival, the Nordic Residency Platform, NORDBUK and apap - Performing Europe 2020 which is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union