Summary
Tortoise In A Nutshell's Ragnarok delivers a gripping story through multiple artistic mediums.
Tortoise In A Nutshell, with Figurteatret Nordland, bands puppetry, live acting, animation, and Norse mythology in a performance unlike anything you have seen before.
The Story
All is lost. All is not lost. The connections between humans, animals and gods have severed, bringing Ragnarok. The end of the world.
In a concrete city, people struggle to find food, become restless with paranoia and predict the end of the world.
The story features several dystopian tropes like depleted resources and civil unrest to connect Ragnarok to a modern world. Aya and her brother, nicknamed Bear, are instructed by their gran to travel to their holiday cottage to escape the growing chaos in the city.
On their journey they face an unforgiving winter, disease and hunger. During their wearying trek the world crumbles around them.
Finally, Aya stops from exhaustion, and a seedling sprouts from the stage.
The Performance
The production begins with actors wearing masks symbolising Jorgmungand, Fenrir, Hel and Odin. A disheartened child’s voice tells the story of a snake choking the earth with its coils, a wolf devouring the sun and moon and the death of humanity following after.
Afterward, four performers built a city made of boxes fashioned into buildings and metal towers that at first looked like cell towers; but better resembled watch towers. This civilisation wasn’t a sanctuary. It was a prison.
The human characters were portrayed by clay figures and paper cut-outs. To bring the audience closer to the action, the cast held a camera at the end of a pole and projected the footage above.
Ragnarok used clear and subtle symbolism from a one-eyed raven god (Odin) to the tree on stage (Yggdrasil) to incorporate the original myth into the story. And as we watch Aya and Bear on their journey, the never setting sun looms on the projector screen. Referring to the prelude to Ragnarok; when the sun was still in the sky, and winter lasted for three years.
The planning and techniques put into the performance were perfect for telling such an emotive story. For example, during darker moments, a cast member changed a setting on the camera to play the footage in negative light. This technique was perfect during snowstorms and shots over jagged mountains.
Seeing the events of the story play out on a projection and the performers playing out the scenes was like seeing a film and its behind the scenes at the same time. It felt intimate and immersive to watch the performers construct set pieces and manoeuvre the palm-sized camera. Behind the tree, a man coordinated the music with a hurdy gurdy, a launchpad and woodwind instruments.
Conclusion
It’s creative, artistic, inventive, unique, original. It uses art forms that you would never think of putting together creating something so memorable and timeless within less than ninety minutes.
The story, the visuals and the music are perfectly compatible for an engrossing story like Ragnarok.
But a review that you can read does not give this production justice. You need to see for yourself.
Featured Image Credit: Tortoise In A Nutshell Website
First year journalism student. From Aboyne, Aberdeenshire but lived in Doha for eight years.
