Brothers and Sisters

Based on young people’s real-life experiences 

Opening night September 2018, Bregateatret
Running time 60 minutes. No intermission. 
In English, with Slovenian abstract. 

Livestreaming from Asker cultural centre in Norway. 
Discussion after performance. 

Director Kjell Moberg
Set and costume designer Katja Ebbel Frederiksen
Lighting designer Norunn Standal
Music designer Helder Deploige
Producers Iva Moberg, Uta Gildhuis

Cast
Helder Deploige, Brede Fristad, Ingeborg Larsen, Moa Johanne Meinich

Featured topics: real-life experience, mental disorders, friendship, trust, conceptual theatre

The production is based on true stories of young people who either experienced mental health problems personally or were involved in their loved one’s experiencing them. 
"When I got sick it was like somebody washed out the colours and turned off the light. Everything was grey. If you break your arm or have a nosebleed, everybody can see that. But I got ill here (in the head)," says a girl in the show. And nobody sees that … And then a tiny thing can destroy it all.
The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of "complete physical, mental and social well-being". Health thus does not mean merely the absence of disease, but also a certain level of physical and mental development and social welfare. And mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual recognises her or his own potential, deals with the usual challenges of life, works and contributes to the community and creates and maintains satisfactory interpersonal relationships. Mental issues can surface only occasionally, in connection to stressful events, or they can be a consequence of a particular personal pattern of experiencing, emotions and behaviour, which causes chronic problems in functioning – mental disorders. This is a label for a broad spectrum of issues that are defined by an atypical combination of thoughts, emotions, behaviour, relations with others and obstacles in everyday chores. The signs of mental disorder can include permanent feeling of indisposition, anxiety and depression, serious problems with self-image, self-destructing behaviour, low tolerance for frustration, low tolerance for stress, distorted contact with reality, interruption of relationships with others, inability to take care of oneself. In short, a cluster of unpleasant signs, which are merely symptoms of the disease that needs to be treated. Do we know how to react when someone close to us gets ill? 
The heartfelt story follows four friends who meet up after years of separation to figure out what made them go their separate ways when they were fifteen years old. The production builds an optimistic, albeit bitter, view of connectedness that survives through even the darkest times, and offers a warm shelter to our ignorance, fear and resistance.