The Staff’s Column
Theatre and tapas – come and experience a new horror drama at SDU
At the University of Southern Denmark, we have established the SDU Culture Club, which invites our students to have an exciting cultural experience at one of the cultural institutions on Funen six times a year. This can be classical music, theatre, visual arts, cultural history, contemporary circus, films and talks.
The purpose of the SDU Culture Club is to inspire and challenge the students, and the programme is curated in such a way that it contains events that many students do not seek out themselves, so that they can broaden their cultural horizons.
We would like to show that attending the University of Southern Denmark is about education in terms of both academic skills and personal development – scientifically as well as culturally.
The SDU Culture Club has members from all faculties; as a consequence, the students meet fellow students from many different study programmes and share some thought-provoking experiences.
SDU Culture Club
The SDU Culture Club was initiated by Rector Jens Ringsmose, is funded by the Rectorate’s Activity Pool and developed and led by Dean Simon Møberg Torp in collaboration with colleagues from the Faculty Administration at the Faculty of Humanities.
The Club currently has 924 members.
Most of the cultural experiences are coupled with a mini-lecture by one of our researchers as well as an introduction to the exhibition, play or concert by the host. This creates a connection between research and art, and the works are situated in a larger context and illuminated in new ways.
For example, when the students went to experience Holst’s The Planets and music from Star Wars with Odense Symphony Orchestra, the event included a lecture on planets. The performance of Annas Sang (Anna’s Song) at Odense Theatre began with a lecture on Jewish literary history in Denmark and parallels to Yahya Hassan, and the Ovartaci exhibition at Kunstmuseum Brandts was contextualised with a presentation on gender, creativity and madness. And before the tour of Hans Christian Andersen’s House, we learned about Andersen’s path from being the shoemaker’s son to being an international celebrity.
Theatre performance at SDU
Some of our colleagues have been so impressed by the programme of the SDU Culture Club that they have asked me if we could also arrange an event for SDU employees. So that’s what we’re doing now. Teater Momentum will be visiting SDU on 1 December 17.30–18.30 to perform MOSELOVEN (the Law of Moses) – a poetic horror drama in Danish about friendship, belonging and the forces we ourselves set in motion, written by the critically acclaimed poet and playwright Elias Sadaq.
The story behind the creation of the work is quite remarkable. Elias Sadaq wrote the play during his time as a writer-in-residence at the Department of Culture and Language at SDU – funded by Velux. In the process, he worked with students to collect empirical data in the form of impressions and experiences, which he used as inspiration.
After the performance, there will be a panel debate from 18.30 to 19.30 with the playwright, the theatre director and a literary researcher with expertise in the subject of the performance. Tapas and soft drinks will be served.
I hope to see you for an amazing evening!
The tickets are distributed on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Experience MOSELOVEN (The Law of Moses) – written by SDU’s writer-in-residence Elias Sadaq
SDU writer-in-residence and playwright Elias Sadaq has written MOSELOVEN (the Law of Moses) – a poetic horror drama in Danish about friendship, belonging and the forces we ourselves set in motion.
Out of the swamp steps the Golem, created by the young wizard Abel from Vollsmose to protect the ghetto from destruction. But in the pursuit of his own humanity, the creature evolves into a force that Abel can no longer control.
Based on the Jewish myth of the Golem, the play examines our longing to belong – and what happens when we try to create our own reality and make ourselves gods. Who is allowed to be human – and who is made into a monster?
Simon Møberg Torp
Dean, Faculty of Humanities.