About us
Borders and the North are the founding language of our art
Samovarteateret is an independent professional theatre company, established in Kirkenes in 1990. Our artistic mission is to create innovative performing arts that challenge peoples perception of the complex times and region we live in.
We value curiosity, experimentation and collaboration that bridges differences.
Moving forward, Samovarteateret will use our experience and our very own Samovar methodology creating space for new voices and focus on freedom of speech, democracy and trust.
Our values
We believe in the performing arts as a vital democratic arena. Through our work, Samovarteateret fosters freedom of expression, critical reflection, and trust, and sees its artistic practice as an integral part of society’s cultural and democratic infrastructure.
Samovarteateret is based at the Sør-Varanger kultursal, where we produce and present performances and are responsible for all operations of the venue, stage, and technical facilities. We collaborate with independent performing arts companies and host visiting productions, as well as serve as a venue for events and external partners. Sør-Varanger kultursal is also the regular local stage for touring productions from the National Touring Theatre of Norway (Riksteatret), Hålogaland Theatre, Beaivváš Sámi National Theatre, and others.
In 1991, Samovarteateret established a theatre program for children and young people under the name The Samovar Kids. Today, the program is run in collaboration with the Sør-Varanger kulturskole. Over the years, hundreds of students have taken part in what is the oldest professional theatre education program in Northern Norway.
Today, the theatre consists of an artistic director and stage director, performing artists, a theatre educator, a technician and lighting designer, a producer, and a communications manager.
Through cross-border artistic practice and systematic international collaborations, Samovarteateret has developed a distinctive genre-crossing artistic expression, where different expressions and art forms are intertwined.
The Samovar Methodology is about facilitating interaction across psychological and geographical boundaries. The methodology is inspired by the classical education within both Stanislavskij and Grotowski, and is used both in work with professional performing artists, students and theater students.
The Samovar Theatre is an independent professional theatre, established in Kirkenes in 1990. The theatre has developed more than 70 professional performing arts productions, and has toured in Asia, Europe, The Barents region and Norway. For our productions and projects, we have involved hundreds of professional performing artists from Norway and abroad.
In February 2005, when Malmklang burned, this posed a "to be or not to be" question for the theatre company. We made a new plan, and after hundreds of hours of voluntary work, our new stage - which we called Scene 2 - opened in the old, closed swimming hall in Kirkenes.
Due to technical reasons, it was decided to demolish the old swimming hall in 2011, an thus also Scene 2. The building would be replaced by a parking lot in connection to the opening of the new school in Kirkenes. The municipal council in Sør-Varanger decided to replace Scene 2 with a new theatre building for The Samovar Theatre, in a wing adjacent to the new Kirkenes school.
In this process we once again put in a great amount of voluntary work to adapt the stage so it could fit its purpose - as a professional theater stage with associated work spaces, production line and logistics. The Samovar Theatre contributed and paid for professional expertise throughout the planning and construction process, and provided all stage technical equipment and installations to make the building operational to welcome the audience and various performing arts and cultural actors. In 2012 we moved into the brand new premises in Sør-Varanger Kultursal. Here, we run rehearsals, theatre school, professional plays, as well as host guest performances and several other cultural actors.
