In its U.K. debut, Utoya looks back upon an attack that left a nation in a state of disbelief and shock.
In 2011, a far-right terrorist conducted two attacks in Norway, killing seventy-seven people: eight in a bomb outside parliament in Oslo and sixty-nine at a children’s socialist summer camp on Utoya island. In Utoya, playwright Edoardo Erba depicts the experiences of those on the outskirts of the attack who, despite their physical distance, were distinctly impacted by the attack, as all in Norway were. There are six characters: Unni and Alf, two police officers on duty that night, Malin and Gunnar, parents whose child is attending said summer camp, and Inga and Petter, siblings living on a farm out in a remote area.
All six characters are portrayed by a pair of actors: Kate Reid and Marco Young. The playing space is bare, consisting of a wooden table with a jagged break in the middle, and a small rectangle enclosing them, clad in LED striplights that offer the ambience of a TV and other items that the space is artistically void of. While the characters deal with the utter turmoil of the attack that night, they additionally have their own interpersonal battles to face. Alf is a raging misogynist hell-bent on utilising policy to overpower and harass his junior colleague, Unni. Malin and Gunnar are in a loveless, arguably hateful marriage, and Inga struggles to get Petter to help her with any of the farming duties that she, in a state of obvious illness, has difficulty attending to. Petter instead is distracted by the suspicious activities of their neighbour.
The production explores the racist and Islamaphobic bias that coloured the experience of this attack. While the various characters did occasionally seem to blend into each other, each with a similar dynamic and set of obstacles, the impact was, nevertheless, felt.
Utoya does a commendable job looking back on an shattering attack that left a nation aghast without glorifying the gore of the experience, allowing the audience to learn about the impact this had not just on the socio-political ideology of Norway, but also on individual citizens within their own homes.