‘Life is short, but it doesn’t have to be cut even shorter. Everyone deserves a chance to rise again through an intricate mystery-mourning play.’ That is the motto of the super funeral agency FØNIX (Phoenix). And now they have a new client: a person is about to be buried and brought back from the dead. The staff set a four-part funeral ritual in motion, leading the audience into a wild and unpredictable world.

The fatal turns festive and solemn mourning gives way to revelry when playwright, performance artist and director Lisa Lie invites audiences to a familiar ritual in an unfamiliar form. The performance is accompanied by music from guitarist and composer Stian Westerhus, drawing on both opera and funeral music traditions.

The audience is invited to take part in the grief, the singing, the memorial gathering and the celebration. Expect communal singing, speeches, strange celestial phenomena, powerful rites, stumbling blocks, soaring choral music and thunderous sound.

Every performance of Fønix is unique. Each evening centres on one specific person who is buried and resurrected on stage. Their life story, friends and family, forms the framework for that particular performance.

‘Overflowing and hilarious.’ – Dagsavisen

‘Lisa Lie’s meditation on death is one of the strangest things I have ever seen.’ – Aftenposten

‘The music grabs hold of your heart, while the text is laugh-out-loud funny.’– Adresseavisen

Photos: Erik Berg

LANGUAGE
Performed in Norwegian

CONTRIBUTORS
Lisa Lie / Consept, libretto, direction
Stian Westerhus / Music, arrangements
César Cañon / Conductor
Maja Nilsen / Scenography, costumes
Oscar Udbye / Lighting design
Håkon Matti Skrede / Chorus master

Musicians from Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Edvard Grieg Choir

More contributors to be announced

A COLLABORATION BETWEEN
Bergen International Festival and Bergen Nasjonale Opera with Musikkselskapet Harmonien and Edvard Grieg Korene, Den Norske Opera og Ballett, Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera

See clips from the opera and feedback from the audience (in Norwegian):