Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium starts 2025 by taking an important step for the theatre's history, handing over its physical archive to The Royal Library. In total, over 68 boxes of archives have been moved from the theatre in Holstebro to national hands, where they will be preserved for posterity.
The material includes correspondence, diary documentation, photo, music and development material from performances.
This transfer protects the value of the archive collection and creates space for the future.
Expecting international demand
Anna Lawaetz, Senior Researcher and PhD at The Royal Library, who has been responsible for the transfer, explains:
We expect great international interest in this particular archive. It could be researchers or PhD students, for example, who contact us because Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium - Odin Teatret is an important name in the international theatre scene. It is an important archive because it bears witness to how the theatre's work has spread all over the world and been in contact with many countries and cultures. It underlines that theatre is an international art form and that NTL - Odin Teatret is also international.
By transferring the theatre's physical archive to The Royal Library, it also opens up opportunities for the archive to be registered, systematised and made available on KB.dk. This will make the theatre's entire archive available for research, dissemination and lending for future exhibitions both at home and abroad.
This is a way of securing the material that we (NTL) do not have the resources to secure in a responsible way here on site. So if it's to have value for posterity, it has to go to someone who has the resources to handle it, and the Royal Library has it. Because if it's not accessible, it basically doesn't exist for the outside world, adds theatre manager Per Kap Bech Jensen.
An archive with significance
Over the years, Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium - Odin Teatret has prioritised having an active archive with employees who have logged various records to such an extent that a book has actually been written about it (The Odin Teatret Archives by Mirella Schino).
Today, the archive collection protects the importance of the theatre over time, where the theatre's theoretical initiatives, experimental projects and international collaborations in particular have had a major impact on how theatre is approached as an art form today - both in Denmark and the rest of the world.
It has an enormous impact on the theatre landscape, both as an insight into the theories, methods and processes of theatre over time, but also as learning for the future. It's a huge transfer of value from Holstebro to a national mission, and we really appreciate that,’ says Per.
Once the collection is registered, it will be available on KB.dk, and Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium will continue to document the theatre's activities for posterity.
