Anette Norgaard - Why Voice?: 2011

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GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN: THE THEATRE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL The wide-ranging festival’s fifteenth season brings nearly two hundred companies to twenty downtown venues. Highlights include “The Day the Sky Turned Black,” a drama by Ali Kennedy Scott, based on the stories of survivors of the catastrophic bushfires in Australia in 2009; Juha Jokela’s “The Fundamentalist,” presented by Scandinavian American Theatre Company; and, in true Fringe spirit, “Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin’ Rock Opera,” by Daniel Franzese and Hanna LoPatin. Opens August 12, closes August 28

BACK STAGE:
The Fundamentalist

Scandinavian American Theater Company at the IATI Theater as part of the New York International Fringe Festival

Reviewed by Erik Haagensen for BACK STAGE
AUGUST 17, 2011

Anyone with a last name such as mine has to give a warm welcome to the first Scandinavian play ever to grace the New York International Fringe Festival. The fact that it is about one of the most important topics of our day, fundamentalism, is an added bonus. But though Juha Jokela's two-hander comes with the imprimatur of the 2008 Nordic Drama Award for best play, what's on stage at the IATI Theater is definitely a mixed bag. Liberal middle-aged priest Father Markus (it's never identified if he is Roman Catholic or Episcopalian) is visited out of the blue by Heidi, who once was an 18-year-old favorite student of his at religious summer camp. Now Heidi is a born-again evangelical Christian and has decided that she must convert Markus, whom she hasn't seen since camp 15 years ago, before his scandalous book of revisionist theology, "Purging the Cathedral," can be published. Instead, it's Markus who causes the married Heidi to doubt her faith, and the two are soon engaged in a sexual affair. It doesn't end well, of course, and Heidi ends up in a mental institution while Markus is seriously chastened, to the point that he tells Heidi that it's just by chance that she ended up there instead of him. In Eva Buchwald's English translation, the relentlessly talky script too often fails to engage. Jokela has some intelligent insights into the psychological makeup that predisposes people to absolutist beliefs, but his characters seem curiously remote. He also errs in setting up a false equivalency between Markus and Heidi by having the priest commit an act of sexual molestation on the teenage girl that has arrested her development and thus made her vulnerable to fundamentalism. That act makes any honest comparison of the characters' different ways of thinking impossible. Under Sebastian Nyman Agdur's somewhat studied direction, Adam Smith Jr. commits fully to this thin-blooded, overintellectualized theologian, but he can't do much to make us sympathize with him. Anette Norgaard is more successful as Heidi, particularly in delineating the differences in physicality and vocal patterns among the young girl, the brainwashed woman, and the passionate adulterous lover. Photo by Amie Tucker
Presented by Scandinavian American Theater Company as part of the New York

International Fringe Festival at the IATI Theater, 64 E. Fourth St., NYC. Aug. 15–25. Remaining performances: Sat., Aug. 20, 2:15 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 8:30 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 3 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 25, 6 p.m. (866) 468-7619 or www.fringenyc.org.

David Roberts - Theatre Critic

"The Fundamentalist" FringeNYC 2011 Reviewed on August 15, 2011
"The Fundamentalist" FringeNYC 2011 Written by Juha Jokela (Translated by Eva Buchwald)
Directed by Sebastian Nyman Agdur
With Adam Smith, Jr. (Markus) and Anette Norgaard (Heidi)

Reviewed by David Roberts

The Scandinavian American Theater Company's first FringeNYC submission is a successful exploration of the ongoing debate between religious fundamentalists and religious moderates-liberals. This chronic (and often vitriolic) debate continued to have a profound effect on social progress in nation-states throughout the world. SATC's "The Fundamentalist" focuses this debate in a dramatic clash between Markus a priest who has abandoned his position as a parish priest and Heidi one of his former youth group members who has come to visit him fifteen years after he last saw her. Why does Markus tell the story of this relationship to a group of former parishioners and supporters? Heidi's current church, The Church of the Living Word (pastored by Heidi's husband) has labeled Markus an instrument of the devil. This label is not bestowed upon him simply because of his liberal (satanic) theology which he expresses in his book; he "deserves" the appellation because of something that happened between him and Heidi those many years ago. Adam Smith, Jr. is a convincing and complex Father Markus. He skillfully unfolds Markus's story of memory, emotion, guilt, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. Anette Norgaard's adolescent-to-adult Heidi engages the audience in her convoluted and clearly conflicted history with her former priest. The tension between their characters as the play rehearses their past and their present centers around the core of meaning of both liberalism and fundamentalism. However, beneath playwright Juha Jokela's carefully structured theological argument between Markus and Heidi simmers a history of emotional and psycho-sexual tension. Director Sebastian Nyman Agdur brings out the very best of script and actors in this must-see performance at the IATI Theatre. What really happened or might have happened between Markus and Heidi will astound you and the ending of the play will linger with you for a very long time.

nytheatre.com review

FringeNYC Festival Review Case Aiken · August 13, 2011

The Fundamentalist, an award winning Finnish play by Juha Jokela making its English language debut at this year’s New York International Fringe Festival, is a thought-provoking, albeit at times ponderous, piece. Told from the vantage point of a retired minister, Markus (Adam Smith, Jr.), it recounts his struggles with faith and the influence one woman, Heidi (Anette Norgaard), has had on it. Markus recounts his relationship with this woman, with key scenes being acted out between the two of them, revealing the struggle that he faces between human sexuality and religion. I appreciated how the show neither pulls any punches nor attempts to present a singular answer. The play is deeply personal. It highlights Markus’s professional life as a minister who speaks out against Fundamentalist Christians, as well as his personal life where his relationship with the much more conservative but seemingly malleable Heidi acts as a motivation for him to become even more vocal about his issues with the more ravenously faithful. Markus explores his past but never tries to paint himself as a hero, nor does he completely break down and present himself as a monster. He sees the harm he’s caused and doesn’t know how to right it. Every effort he makes to do the right thing is colored by his own feelings for Heidi. While he wants what in his mind is the best for her, it ultimately is only destructive. I think The Fundamentalist is a very well developed discussion of religion versus human sexuality. In particular, Smith, as Markus, does a fantastic job with the extremely difficult material of the piece. Honestly, with a piece like this, technical elements are not particularly necessary, but set and lighting design by Starlet Jacobs and Bruce A. Kraemer respectively do a fine job of adding to the story. This is an example of a play with a very strong concept and great performances, however it is not an easy to watch play. It can
be overly dark and there is little levity to offset the more painfully poignant moments. I think there are great points raised, but I would have liked some happier or more lighthearted scenes to balance them out. I can see why it won the Nordic Drama Award; the play is a solid work and I can fully recommend it to any audience member looking for a deeper discussion of religion.

Opened: August 13, 2011 Closes: August 25, 2011 Artists Involved  Author: Juha Jokela  Director: Sebastian Nyman Agdur  Producer: Scandinavian American Theater Company

Nordstjernan
by Hanna Aqvilin

'Sensitive but unclassified…'

Finnish playwright Juha Jokela is in New York to see the adaptation of his award winning play, The Fundamentalist, which opens Saturday, Aug. 13 as part of The Fringe festival.

HEIDI: I have come to remind you that you too can receive this gift. Jesus' invitation is open to all. (pause)
MARKUS: Yeah, well as you probably realize, that's not exactly classified information. I mean, I am a pastor. (Two lines from Juha Jokela’s play The Fundamentalist)

He’s in town to see the adaptation of his award winning play, The Fundamentalist. Not overseeing it mind you, micromanaging is not Finnish playwright Juha Jokela’s style and besides, the production is brought to the New York stage by the local Scandinavian American Theater Company. “It will be interesting to see what they have done with my play”, says Juha Jokela with a smile. It's one day before his play's premiere at the Fringe festival, which is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days. “I know the play is in good hands. I am just glad that people in the world find it inspiring. If someone had told me five years ago that my play would be performed in New York I would not have believed them.” Juha Jokela was a believer. He found his faith when at fifteen he participated in a confirmation camp – not uncommon prior to the first communion in the Nordic countries. The following years he was an active Christian but when he was around twenty he started to question his beliefs and began to ask himself what fundamentalism means and how it reflects on your mind. Ten years passed before he could finally get his inner thoughts on paper and the play that opens Aug. 13 at IATI Theater was created. “There are only two characters on stage. Marcus, a man and former priest who wants to make publicly known how he lost his fate. Heidi, a former student, whom he knew 15 years earlier has turned into a religious extremist and now enters his life again. She seeks him out to save him and make him open fully and totally to Jesus,” said the playwright and added “the play is challenging and emotional. The audience will reflect about religion and the play illustrates how far humans are willing to go in order to follow their beliefs. The subject of fundamentalism is current, it has always been present and has caused a lot of sorrow throughout the years.”

The Fundamentalist by Juha Jokela, winner of the Nordic Drama Award 2008,
opens Aug. 13, 8:30 p.m. at IATI Theater, 64 East 4th ST. Other performances: 8/15, 4:00 p.m., 8/20, 2:15 p.m. 8/22, 8:30 p.m., 8/24, 3:00 p.m. and 8/25, 6:00 p.m. For tickets visit www.fringenyc.org (This is the first time a Scandinavian play is presented at The Fringe) More info on Scandinavian America Theater Company: www.satcnyc.org

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Press - The Fundamentalist

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Fundamentalist in NYC

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