Words by

Catharine Fulton

Photo by

Art Bicnick

Ewa Marcinek and Pálína Jónsdóttir are a dream team. A playwright powerhouse. The future of Icelandic theatre.

Since establishing the Reykjavík Ensemble International Theatre Company in 2019, the creative duo has mounted performances that break the mould of Icelandic theatre, been named Reykjavik’s Art Group of 2020, and were nominated as the Pioneering Newcomer of the Year at the 2020 Icelandic Performing Arts Awards. In January, it was announced the groundbreaking company has been awarded a three-year contract with the City of Reykjavík, providing them an infusion of 2 million ISK annually to support their inclusive multinational, multicultural and multilingual art.

The Reykjavík Grapevine sat down with Ewa and Pálína during a break from rehearsing Djöfulsins snillingur (Fucking Genius), ahead of its March 30 premiere at Tjarnarbíó.

Reflecting Experiences

“It’s a piece that actually reflects the immigrant experience of coming to this country and what it takes also to be an artist immigrant in this country,” Pálína explains of the production — the company’s fourth in as many years. “There are a lot of obstacles that the protagonist has to face and deal with during her journey to realise the goal of her decision to come to this particular country — the promised land of sorts.”

It’s unsurprising to learn that Pálína, the company’s artistic director, spent 14 years in the New York theatre scene. She speaks fast and passionately about Reykjavík Ensemble, the immigrant artist experience and the importance of increased diversity in the country’s theatre scene.

“It’s a piece that actually reflects the immigrant experience of coming to this country and what it takes also to be an artist immigrant in this country.”

The juxtaposition to this is writer and producer Ewa’s calm quiet, as she adds that Djöfulsins snillingur “is a dark comedy because sometimes laughter is the best commentary on what happens to us. So we talk about immigration, we talk about integration, and some about  linguistics — the situation of being in a new country.”

Ewa and Pálína are careful not to divulge any secrets — The Grapevine, like the rest of the public, will have to make it out to Tjarnarbíó if it wants to get the full picture of Djöfulsins snillingur — but they explain that the production is about the protagonist Uriela who aspires to audition for the National Circus before falling into a cycle of applications, authentication processes and bureaucracy. Her eagerness to integrate into the Icelandic cultural scene is contrasted by the experience of another character, a perpetual immigrant, who has been in Iceland for hundreds of years. A grocery store self check-out machine also comes into play, but inquiring about that is where the synopsis ends, lest we’d have to slap a “spoiler alert” on this article.

High Hopes & High Standards

Longtime readers of the Grapevine are familiar with Ewa for her book Ísland Pólerað (which could be translated as Polish-ing Iceland) — the source material of the stage production Reykjavík Ensemble mounted in March 2020 before it was published in 2022.

“It was not published yet but I asked her to share it with me,” Pálína explains. “And I said, ‘Ewa, I think I can make an adaptation of your piece.’”

“And that was the COVID piece that opened and closed on the same evening,” she continues. “We had to wait for the next window of opportunity to remount it, but it only played four times in this country. So it was a total depressive shock not to be able to play it and we lost a lot of money.” 

Photo by Art Bicnick

But, despite the pandemic dealing a particularly hard blow to artists and arts organisations like Reykjavík Ensemble — a point about which Pálína admits she holds a grudge, saying “I’m very saddened that it affected us really badly, and our artists and our company” — they ploughed on.

“From the beginning it was very important for us to produce really original shows of great artistic value,” Ewa says. “Professional shows. Professional actors and artists working on the production, but at the same time being as open as possible to our community, to all the newcomers.”

“We were able to get so much support from both Reykjavikurborg and the government through the performing arts fund, so it looks like it works what we’re doing.”

Ewa addresses a common elephant in the room when discussing “immigrant” art projects, lamenting that they often skew toward folksy and place emphasis on “just getting together” above professionalism. “But we really want them to be on a professional level, to show the real talents that are coming here.”

“We didn’t have anything in the theatre world of this country of this nature where we welcome talent from wherever they may come from, whatever languages they may be operating, a chance to be included in this community.”

Integration Possible

The theme of integration and inclusion that recurs in many of Reykjavík Ensemble’s productions is also a mission of the company as a business, with Pálína explaining she is determined to change the culture of excluding artists who perhaps weren’t educated in Iceland and demanding they jump through hoops to prove they are, in fact, artists.

Photo by Art Bicnick

“Because they’re not educated in Listahaskoli Island or something,” she laughs.

This all comes back to the themes at the centre of Djöfulsins snillingur. “Urelia is dealing with this new country that has its own system and we learn throughout the play that the system may not be flawless. So the play operates a lot on these black comedy, Kafkaesque situations that are challenging and absurd in their nature,” Pálína explains. “And for the artist to hold on to her mission that she knows she is an artist and that’s what she’s meant to do and that’s how she wants to contribute to this amazing country, she needs to be seen and she needs to be given a chance.”

“Our play is about following your dream and working toward it against all the obstacles.”

“And that’s very much in line with what immigrants experience in new countries. They may be totally invisible. And it’s impossible for anybody — for any human being I know — to do things entirely by themselves. They need somebody to support them, to lift them. And that’s what we do in our company.”

But not all countries are created equal, from the immigrant perspective. “Iceland is very specific,” Ewa clarifies “It’s all about having connections, and even those who are native here, but if they travel abroad to study and then they come back they may have a problem joining the market. So imagine how hard it is for those who are from abroad and are educated abroad to join. That is also what we’re playing with in Djöfulsins snillingur.”

“​​It is the promised land,” Ewa concludes, “but we need to help those who arrive here or who have been here for some time but don’t know how to fulfil their dreams. Our play is about following your dream and working toward it against all the obstacles.”

Djöfulsins snillingur premieres at Tjarnarbíó on March 30, with performances also scheduled for April 13 and 23. Tickets are going fast, so secure yours ASAP from Tix.is.