The Garden is the structure and the Tiger is the Game. The game is real in this piece, all players choose and the computer and director respond. The flow of the piece is non-linear and can be presented in many different forms. There are 12 scenes of prepared performance material that exist in combinations that are both aesthetically and randomly chosen. There are rules that are both logical and illogical, fair and unfair. This makes for only one surety in the performance; it will be both the same and different each night.

IN THE TIGER GARDEN everyone participates according to the game's rules, with choice and consequence as a motivational factor. Conflict plays itself out in the zone between the virtual and the real, where the individual player's desire to create and form what happens is the prime motor for the game itself. The game then reflects the player's own relationship to a given system and its closest environment; in this case: other players, the public and the electric brain; where the system and rules are laid down and from where, to a small degree, they are decided.

THE TIGER GARDEN's structure - based on chance, chaos and coincidence - refers to Kathy Acker's strategy when dealing with text. During a performance therefore, the actors may freely choose any acting style they want in their approach to the text. Kathy Acker's style states that you are allowed to make use of the classics as well as the fringe, soap operas, musicals, and pure performance. This makes defining the stay in the garden both polemic and explosive, both for the players and the public.

Kathy Acker's work presents a fantasmagoric dreamworld overlapping and sometimes violently intersecting realities. It has been clear to us since the beginning that technology would be a powerful tool with which to present this reality. An underlying intent has been to work in unison with the technology, allowing it a vital and interlocking place in terms of both aesthetics and structure.The amalgamation of live action and specially developed video and sound programmes allows the music and video to operate as playful partners in the performance as a whole. The performance could not exist without this partnership.

CREDITS:

PLAYERS: Hanne Dieserud, Fredrik Hannestad, Saila Hyttinen.
SHADOWS/ANGELS: Jakob Andersen, Kirsti Ladegård, Stuart Lynch.
HOSTESS: Kate Pendry.
DIRECTION: Gerd Christiansen.
MUSIC: Erik Balke & Sven Erga.
COMPUTER PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT (MUSIC): Sven Erga.
COMPUTER PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT (VIDEO): Hans Christian Gilje.
VIDEO DESIGN & LIGHT: Hans Christian Gilje.
VIDEO OPERATION & ADDITIONAL DESIGN: Johnny Yen.
COSTUMES: Signe Vasshus.
PHOTOS: Stein Jarle Nielsen.
GAMESTRUCTURE: Gerd Christiansen in collaboration with Sven Erga, Stuart Lynch

The TIGER GARDEN was premiered at Black Box Theatre in sept. 2000 and has been supported and funded by:
Norsk Kulturråd: Kunst og Ny Teknologi (Norwegian Cultural Council: Art and Technology) Norsk Kulturfond (Norwegian Cultural Fund) and Norsk Kassette avgiftsfond (Norwegian Cassette Tax Fund).