Approximately 150 young north Icelanders, aged 13 to 20, participated in the first part of the Thjódleikur theater festival held in Akureyri last weekend where they demonstrated the results of a few weeks’ rehearsal of new plays.
The group Daddavarta from Skagaströnd at the premiere of Íris by Brynhildur Gudjónsdóttir and Ólafur Egill Ólafsson.
A total of 18 theater groups from north and east Iceland are participating in the festival this year, stretching from Blönduós in the northwest to Höfn in the southeast. The second part of the festival will take place in Egilsstadir, east Iceland, next weekend, Morgunbladid reports.
Thjódleikur is held at the initiative of the National Theater of Iceland education division. Each theater group picks one of three short Icelandic plays, which are written specifically for the project and then staged in the group’s hometown.
This year’s playwrights are Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Jón Atli Jónasson and Brynhildur Gudjónsdóttir and Ólafur Egill Ólafsson who wrote one play jointly. The National Theater provides professionals to assist the youngsters during rehearsal.
Although the festival in Akureyri is formally over, one theater group, the performance group Orkidea, will perform the play Mold (“Earth”) by Jónasson one more time, tonight at 8 pm in Rósenborg, Akureyri.
