On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of legendary Odin Teatret, QMU is conferring an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters upon its founder and Artistic Director, Eugenio Barba. Odin Teatret’s groundbreaking and influential theatre work is celebrated in this double bill of events:

This is a performance which describes the vicissitudes of the voice of an actor and the stratagems she invents to ‘interpret’ a text.

In theatre, which seems to be free of the codes we find in music, the actor needs to create a labyrinth of rules, references and resistance to follow or refuse so as to achieve a personal expression and recognise his/her own voice.

There is a tension in making theatre: day to day practicalities need to be undertaken alongside the search for what Barba calls the ‘sphinx’ of the performance, a riddle that must be emotionally understood so that it lets the spectator ‘dream’. Focussing on examples from Odin Teatret’s current repertoire and its wide-ranging activities, this discussion will explore how theatre is a fundamental craft but also takes on a creative life of its own, both in artistic and organisational terms.

See also the screening of Odin Teatret film ‘The Conquest of Difference’.