Art, Age & Health: A Research Journey about Developing Reminiscence Theatre in an Age-Exchange Project

Abstract

Abstract:In this article, the researcher studies how it is possible to develop a reminiscence theatre production in an age-exchange project, created with life stories from pensioners, and how the audience experiences the performance. The article is based on six focus group interviews with nine pensioners, a theatre production and a "reminiscence café" between the audience and the actors, arranged after the performance. The researcher designed the study, "The aged as a resource", based on guidelines for performance ethnography, art-based research, practice-led research and artistic research, in order to combine science and art, which could be said to represent two different epistemological traditions. Løgstrup encourages us to view phenomena in the world as compatible contrasts, which gently converge towards a meeting point, and it is precisely this meeting between art and science that this article addresses (Løgstrup, 1961). Keywords Four generations on the stage -an age-exchange journey is about to begin. Research QuestionIn this article the researcher studies the following research question: How it is possible to develop a reminiscence theatre production in an age-exchange project, created with life stories from pensioners, and how does the audience experience the performance? This article is based on six focus group interviews with nine pensioners, a theatre production and a "reminiscence café" between the audience and the actors arranged after the performance, all part of the research study "The aged as a resource" . The researcher designed the study using guidelines based on performance ethnography, art-based research, practice-led research and artistic research (Denzin, 1997(Denzin, , 2003McNiff, 2009;Haseman, 2006;Haseman & Mafe, 2009 BackgroundThe background for the project 'The aged as a resource" was the desire to do something about the way society views the aged today. The research project was commenced with the wish to contribute to the creation of new knowledge about pensioners' thoughts about the lives they lived, but also to test out the use of reminiscence theatre in Norway.The British professor of drama and theatre, Helen Nicholson, claims that applied theatre projects often aim, "to benefit individuals, communities and societies" (Nicholson, 2005, p. 2). Reminiscence theatre is a part of the so-called applied theatre sphere, the intention being to create theatre out of the bounds of mainstream theatre institutions in non-traditional settings, generally with one or another type of marginalized social group (Prendergast & Saxton, 2009). Many pensioners gradually begin to feel marginalized, standing on the periphery of society, since the demand for efficiency and earning power are so central to today's values. This is not a uniquely Norwegian phenomenon. 3 The World Health Organization (WHO) has a global focus working against ageism, as they wish to contribute to a preventative public-health-focused consciousness concerning the aged as a resource in local society. 4Being "aged" is often referred...

‘Better than Medicine’: Theatre and health in the contemporary Norwegian context

“…However, in the last years there has been a growing interest in the field. Academics such as Ellen Seur, Oddbjørn Johansen, Ellen Foyn Brun, Rikke Gürgens Gjaerum, Gro Ramsdal and Rolf Wynn have published articles about Norwegian theatre in health initiatives both nationally and internationally (Seur and Johansen 2013;Ramsdal et al 2013;Gjaerum 2013aGjaerum , 2013bBruun 2012). The interest in the field can also be exemplified by the fact that the Nordic dramapedagogic journal Drama launched a special issue about drama and health in 2013.…”