Act Alone Festival

On Friday evening we went to the Act Alone festival (www.actalone.net), a chance for actors, singers, and comedians to perform shows by themselves. It was held in Suðureyri, a local town home to 300 people, and it would be easy to assume that the festival is performed by local people for local people, but this wasn’t the case. The line up included some big names in Icelandic culture, including artists with a huge following in Reykjavik and all around the world.

Suðureyri

First up, we saw Bjarni Haukur Thorrson’s show How to become Icelandic in 60 minutes (www.howtobecomeicelandic.is/). The show is usually performed at Harpa, the huge concert hall in Reykjavik, so to see it being performed in what was essentially a village hall was a fantastic experience. The atmosphere was amazing and the show was hilarious for both the foreigners and the local Icelanders. Over one hour, we were taught lessons such as ‘Be rude’, ‘You are always right’ and most importantly, live by the Icelandic motto Þetta reddast (somehow, everything will be alright)!


Next up was Mugison (www.mugison.com), a local musician who in the last ten years has performed all around the world, and supported Of Monsters and Men and Queens of the Stone Age. We watched him perform in a sort of fishing barn (I don’t know the technical term, but it smelt very strongly of fish and there were fishing hooks and nets hanging from the walls!). He was joined by a local woman for two songs and at the end two women performed a rather bizarre dance for us. Again, it was a fantastic atmosphere seeing one of Iceland’s most famous musicians playing for such a small audience.

After a few beers, we went to the last show performed by stand up comedian Hermann Hleypur. After realising there were so many foreigners in the audience he decided to perform his show in English (with a little Icelandic thrown in). I get the feeling that a few of the jokes were lost in translation, but the Icelanders found it all hilarious!

It was a great night with weird and wonderful entertainment and such a laid-back atmosphere.