Nerbyen – A Bluff in History

There remains only a single physical reminder of the flourishing Jewish life in Nerbyen: a tiny, listed door sign with the name David Isaksen.

We know very well why this life suddenly ended.

But what was it like? Why did they come here? Why not to Bergen or to Sweden? What did they do? What did they believe in? What did they live on?

The performance attempts to answer these questions. It is not about how it ended, but how it began and what it was like.

Jews are enormously concerned with their culture, their history, and their dead. Why?

Perhaps because their history is characterized by such hitchhiking. They establish themselves somewhere and then have to leave again without leaving any trace. The Norwegian Jews came mostly from the Shtetls (small villages) in Poland, the Baltics and Russia. Like Nerbyen, these communities were also hitchhikers in history. There are almost no traces of them or their descendants in the areas that were abandoned by tens of millions of Jews about 100 years ago.

But fortunately there are many descendants of Trondheim's historical Blaff. And we have spoken to these people to try to understand what it was like when their great-grandparents lived in Nerbyen. It has been a real treat to delve into it, and we hope the performance conveys something of the life we have gained an insight into. Through stories, music, religion, culture, food, drink, family love, business life, enterprise and most of all through a generous and unassuming humor.

A group of professional theatre workers with roots in the Rhubarb Theatre have created this performance for the Trondheim Jewish Cultural Festival. And it is of course performed on historical grounds.

Where it happened.

In the nearby town.

Directing

Øyvind Brandtzæg

Costume design and set design

Jenny Hilmo Teig

Composition/rehearsal of music

Øyvind Jo Heimdal Oak

Musicians

Ola Lindseth, violin

Sunniva Hovde, accordion

Technical/supervisor

Hilde Knedal Andersen

Producer

Rita Abrahamsen

Actors

Bendik Sjømæling Nordgaard

Wild Soyland

Madeleine Brandtzæg Nilsen

Cengiz Magnus Sicakkan Nereid

The production is supported by

Ministry of Culture and Equality

The Arts Council

Directorate of Culture

Free Speech

Fund for performing artists

Trøndelag County Municipality

Trondheim Municipality

Jewish Cultural Festival Trondheim