The Nordic Council - Three men from the north

`Three men from the North´ is a show about awkwardness. It's about a hard days work, tradition and routines. It´s about coffee and knitted woollen clothing. It´s a show steeped in tradition and nostalgia built on contemporary circus. 

Working with topics and themes drawn from the North, we work with combinations of juggling and live music as well as spoken word and aerial rope. The show is blunt and to the point in a way that only Finnish humour can be, Swedishly self-aware and with a hint of Icelandic peculiarity. 

Emphasis has been put on the combination of live music and juggling, and other forms of co-dependence in performance.

Trailer here

häppy hour

New creation set to premiere in february 2024

The Nordic Council is setting out to create their second full length piece, Disco Inferno (Working title). The show will consist of the trio that created ‘Three men from the North‘, Merri Heikkilä, Jakob Jacobsson and Bjarni Arnason.

A complicated relationship

This project is about creating a new circus show using the collective northern perspective of the artists about the unique and quirky ways northerners use alcohol in social contexts, as well as other interactions that are inherently northern. The show will look at everything from the way we go to clubs in -25°c, to more traditional topics, like snappsvisor and midsummer celebrations. This show looks at these situations and interprets them with honesty, but also with humour and abstraction through circus. In all Nordic countries alcohol is a controversial topic. Under-age drinking as well as clinical alcoholism are both problems every Nordic country is struggling with, yet criticising drinking habits is a sensitive topic since alcohol is so closely knitted into our traditions and national identity. This show is not about criticising anyone’s habits; this is a show where old traditions and current trends are turned into a piece that takes the audience on a journey through highs and lows, both literally and figuratively. The show will be a full length show full of relatable scenes and topics interpreted through contemporary circus. Using juggling, acrobatics and aerial rope, as well as live music and physical theatre, the show will display this topic in a way that allows the audience to both laugh and reflect at the same time.

Partners

Cie Nuua

We will collaborate with Companie Nuua, and their artistic director Olli Vuorinen as an outside eye for both the assembly of the show, but also for the creation of the juggling material, as his longtime experience creating shows with Nuua and other companies.

Dynamo Workspace

The third partner is Dynamo Workspace (DK). Dynamo is a groundbreaking project which opened its doors in Odense and single handedly created a circus scene around itself. Dynamo is a hub for circus in which space is offered to artists for creation as well as assistance in the production of contemporary circus. Dynamo also organises an annual circus festival which features bold, up-and-coming projects curated by Gry Lambertsen and Rune Vadstrøm Andersen. Dynamo has offered residency space and the possibility for small showings to try out early material, which will be crucial to understanding the audience's interpretation of the material.

The aim is to create a show that offers a strong nordic perspective on a relatable topic, relates to the nordic audiences, whilst also being an accessible show for other audiences. 

Then to create a network within the north, between nordic circus companies, and eventually to extend the touring to Europe. This will assist in spreading nordic circus to more established stages, sharing nordic themes with audiences who might not have much cultural experience with the nordic perspective.