Phoenix

A fatal and festive funeral quite out of the ordinary. «Life is short, but it doesn’t have to get any shorter. Everyone can get a chance to rise again through an intricate mystery mourning play». That is the motto of the super funeral home FØNIX. And now they have a new client, a human being who is to be buried and rise from the dead. The staff set in motion a funeral ritual in four parts, which leads into a wild world. The fatal turns into a party and the solemnity of the grave turns into a wake, when the playwright, performance artist and director Lisa Lie invites us to a familiar ritual in an unfamiliar style. The performance is accompanied by music by the guitarist and composer Stian Westerhus, based on both opera and funeral music. The audience is invited to join in the grief, the singing, the memorial gathering and the party. There will be singalongs, speeches, strange celestial phenomena, powerful rites, stumbling blocks, mighty choral singing and hefty music.

• Stian Westerhus