Presented in Tjarnarbíó on the 11th of December 2019 Opening Ceremony launched the existence of the company, celebrating the international artists community. For their first production Reykjavík Ensemble engaged twelve performers, artists living and working in Iceland, representing different languages and cultural backgrounds:

American, Austrian, Serbian, Columbian, Galician, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Mexican, Polish, Spanish, Swedish. Directed by Pálína Jónsdóttir, together they created a physical testimony, stating the urgency they feel to take action in making their voices heard on the Icelandic theatre scene.

Opening Ceremony is an alchemical fusion of the corporeal, textual, musical and visual language of theatre. The group directed by Pálína Jónsdóttir created a metamorphic, dream-like journey, a mosaic composition, compiled with sequences of events, discovered through the practice of improvisation. Pálína included fragments of material from local foreign-born authors, who are affiliated with Reykjavík Ensemble, among them are Mazen Maarouf, Ewa Marcinek and Elías Knorr.

Opening Ceremony is a devised theatre piece, a dynamic collaboration, ignited and constructed through materials programmed by Reykjavík Ensemble for the inaugural theatrical year of 2020. It’s a theatre performance teaser, an ode to creativity and the newfound diverse artistic community.