NONcompany is a performing arts group based in Bergen, Norway and Berlin, Germany. The company produces performances in a wild mix of genres and constantly finds new approaches to the work. The company consists of artists from different fields including theatre, design, film, sound and music. With a more or less consistent core,  members of the group change depending on the projects and forms of expression they work with at any given time.

The company aims at exploring new viewpoints and perspectives on our surroundings, and the time we live in, through experiments with hybrids of form and genres. Like the critically acclaimed performance Reconstructions where cinematic themes and elements created the framing, or KAZAK: the expedition a mix of lecture performance and theatre, or KAZAK: kazak approaching an audiovisual performative installation.

The works have an international profile and are often created in English or in multiple versions when text is the main device. Many of NONcompany’s projects have partly been created and staged abroad and at international festivals such as METEOR Bergen, BASTARD Trondheim, Black Box Teater – Oslo, Arts Printing House – Vilnius, Junge Hunde – Århus and Ufer Studios – Berlin. The projects have been produced Norway, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Russia, Finland and Canada to mention some.

History

In 2002 actress and theatre maker Lise Risom Olsen gathered a group of artists to create a performance based on «Cunts Going Knowhere», a text for theatre by Hjoerdis Lehre. In collaboration with two artists from the music scene in Bergen, Pedro Carmona Alvarez and Heidi Marie Vestrheim, they made a performance where the text was both sung in pop songs, delivered as spoken words and performed as scenes. The music was made in collaboration with sound designer / elecronical musician Kjetil Aabøe, and interior designer Lena Lundsten Buchacz and lighting designer Hans Skogen created the setting and atmosphere. The result was a pop-theatre performance that reached a wide audience.

Kjetil, Lena, Hans and Lise continued to work together under the name NONcompany. The group has created performances since with a number of different artists being involved in the different productions.

NONcompany has collaborated with actors, performers, musicians, writers, poets, singers, filmmakers, video artists, pop bands, photographers, designers and many others.

NONcompany has also created a row of side projects such as concerts, readings, happenings and smaller performances. These projects have sometimes been part of a research, sometimes experiments to try out elements for bigger projects, and sometimes totally independent creations.