If there was a language of Eurovision, it would be that of Lé Nør: a faux foreign film performed live on stage by Perth theatre makers The Last Great Hunt.
Lé Nør is performed entirely in an invented language that’s supposedly a mix of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Afrikaans, Bulgarian and Arabic.
Told with a dose of 80s nostalgia, it’s the story of the fictional island nation of Sólset – once thriving, but now beset by rising seas.
Sólset is supposed to be a Scandanavian-influenced nowhere-in-particular, but in many ways it’s a fantasy version of Perth, according to narrator and director Tim Watts.
It boomed in the 1980s thanks to vast fossil fuel resources and corporate tax breaks, but has since been beset by decades-long drought, he said.
The story of those who remain on Sólset is billed as heartfelt but also very funny: a kind of theatrical Melrose Place for the age of climate change.
But why invent a language? It’s a question the cast ask themselves each time they have to re-learn their lines, Watts said.
“We just thought it was hilarious, the idea of subtitling a made up language, it feels very playful, because it’s you’re aware of the futility of it.”
It all started when the theatre group was experimenting with using an onstage camera, and one of its members jumped on a laptop and started typing live subtitles.
“It just lifted this world of cinematic, theatrical play into this other territory, which felt very charming,” Watts said.
The film is performed live each night, with cameras recording onstage actors, and the vision shown on a big screen metres away.
“There’s a playful relationship with the audience where they can see how it’s being done, they can see how fake it is, yet when they see the output on the screen, they still get swept up in it,” Watts explained.
The audience can watch both the onscreen story and the behind-the-scenes action – a genre of theatre-making that has become known as cine-theatre.
Australian theatre-makers have created a number of successful cine-theatre productions, such as the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, which has been exported to the West End and Broadway.
Lé Nør sold out its premiere season at the 2019 Perth Festival, and played in Albany and Mandurah, but – aside from a short run in Melbourne in 2023 – hopes of touring the popular show were cruelled by the COVID pandemic.
Returning to the 2026 Perth Festival, its slot towards the closing weekend is a strategic move: it coincides with the Australian Performing Arts Market being held in the city, where international delegates check out shows with an eye to programming them at festivals overseas.
“We’re hoping that through the Performing Arts Market, we can rekindle that momentum and get some touring at last for the show,” Watts said.
Lé Nør runs February 25 to 28 as part of the Perth Festival.
https://thewest.com.au/entertainment/do-you-speak-the-language-of-eurovision-this-show-can-c-21612358
