October 15th, 2026 we will be hosting a new edition of Notam Nights!
This evening the program will consist of a performance by Uniah (Una Aurora Venås), the premiere of Gargoyles – a new multi-channel work by Samuel Brzeski and a lecture-performance by Kate Pendry.
Where: Notam (Myrens Verksted 3A).
When: Doors open at 6.30 pm. The event starts at 7.00 pm.
The event is free, but we would still appreciate it if you could register using the form below.
Lecture performance with Kate Pendry – author of The son
In February, the case against Marius Borg Høiby went to trial. Even then, Den Nationale Scene in Bergen attracted media attention when it emerged that playwright Kate Pendry and director Mads Sjøgård Pettersen were in the courtroom to observe the proceedings. This was the start of a roller-coaster journey for a theatre production that sparked an intense debate concerning what it is appropriate for a theatre to do when the King dies – and ultimately, about the role of contemporary theatre in the society today.
During Notam Nights the audience opportunity to take a deeper dive into the play with playwright Kate Pendry. Excerpts from the script will be read, and Pendry share the process of creating the play, what it was like in the courtroom, and the reaction and attention the production received following its premiere.
Kate Pendry
is an actress and playwright from London who now lives and works in Oslo. She is known for her political and controversial works, and has written and produced over fifty plays, as well as a number of digital artworks and radio productions. Pendry’s characteristic use of black humour and sharp social commentary has earned her a distinctive reputation in the arts community.
Photo: Jonas Jeramiassen Tomter
Samuel Brzeski
Samuel Brzeski (UK/NO) is an artist, writer and publisher who works with language as raw material – shaping, stretching and transforming words on screens, on paper and in speech. Central to his work is a playful and performative use of the voice; the voice as a carrier of rhythm, vibration and emotion; the voice as the core of a person’s experience of their own presence. Sometimes his works create more sound than meaning.
Samuel studied literature at the University of Sheffield and art at the Bergen Academy of Art, and has attended the Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht), the Maumaus Independent Study Programme (Lisbon) and The Mountain School of Arts (Los Angeles). As an extension of his practice, he runs Vibrational Semantics Press, a publishing house that releases texts, scores and sound works by creative practitioners working with voice and language. Samuel currently lives in both Bergen and Maastricht.
Gargoyles by Samuel Brzeski
Laughter can be a spontaneous outburst, an uncontrolled and chaotic physical reaction – which unites people in a liberating, chuckling catharsis. On the other hand, laughter can also be calculated, manipulative and divisive – it can reinforce power structures and harbour underlying violence.
Within patriarchal structures, laughter serves as a sign of complicit solidarity and dominance amongst men. Gender-based violence is perpetrated under the guise of «just having fun», and humiliation is used to oppress others. At the same time, tensions can be eased when people laugh together – in moments of interpersonal synchrony that create space for vulnerability.
In the ongoing project Gargoyles Samuel Brzeski explores various forms of laughter within patriarchal structures and masculine relationships. Through vocal performances, video installations and sound works, Brzeski portrays a range of masculinely coded, archetypal figures – or gargoyles – and explores laughter as an extension of a language that lies beyond rational meaning. During a residency at Notam earlier this year, he developed a new multi-channel sound composition, which will receive its world premiere at this edition of Notam Nights.
Photo: Andreas van Hoppe.
Uniah (Una Aurora Venås)
Through the Uniah project, artist Una Aurora Venås explores an intense fascination with dreams. Voices, harp-like soundscapes, textures of noise, scenography, video art and drawing are just some of the elements that come together in her work. Over several years of working with dreams, Una has drawn inspiration from «lucid dreams», sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, dream memories, surrealist musings and reflections on reality and unreality.
Over the past couple of years, Uniah has given a number of concerts and performances, and her two self-produced music videos, “Becoming a Ghost Film” and “Hallucia Film”, were both selected for the Grimstad Short Film Festival. Following the release of her EP “Embody Nobody” and her new single “Hallucia”, she has been featured in GAFFA Nykommer and Ballade.
Photo: Thea Grant.
