Song of Simon

Because it was cancelled last year, we are especially happy to announce that Song of Simon (DK/NO) by Danny Meyer Wilson and Tor Kjetil Edland has been rebooked for Grenselandet 2021.

Song of Simon a freeform scenario and a quirky story for four players about two twins going to an elite Swiss Boarding school together with their two best friends and crushes at the school. Things start out as light-hearted erotica, but turns sinister, as the twins realize that one of them is slowly turning into a monster, with an increasing appetite for raw flesh. As an added bonus, two of the players will get to take on the role of Mother, the teenagers inner voices, who is constantly commenting on their actions and trying to push them to do as Mother wants.

Long Story: A Deep Time LARP

Prepare for a Long Story. This one is as long and deep as the history of the Earth. Join a multi-species cast on a journey into the future in search of better pastures. Travel hundreds, thousands, and millions of years to explore a changing, restless world: hot and swampy one era, cool and arid the next. What will you and your companions make of this shifting, fluctuating landscape? How will you adapt to its changes, and most importantly, will you find what you are looking for?

In this larp players explore the (deep) future at exponentially increasing intervals, ranging from five to five billion years from now, by embodying tough, survivor species like the jellyfish, or the Galapagos vampire finch. Thematically, the LARP addresses decay, ruination, evolution, adaptation, and species legacies. In terms of gameplay, the larp's emphasis rests squarely on communal worldbuilding, and less so on roleplay.

The larp was designed by Laura op de Beke as part of a small research project called Playing With Deep Time.

Lost and Found: Belongings that Belong

Do objects feel lost, if anything at all? Can they belong if they have no-one to belong to? Stuck in an absurdist and mundane limbo, this larp explores what it’s like to be lost property. All characters in Lost and Found are based on inanimate objects and it explores the idea that lost property items, from the moment they are forgotten, become sentient. After the initial shock of being left behind in a dusty train station, they start to organise and realise that maybe it’s possible to live without their owners.

Characters will explore how to build a community and ride the tensions that might accompany it, and confront the contemplation of their own egos. Players will also play their objects’ owners in some flashback scenes. Most of the play will be narrative driven including small amounts of movement and physical contact.

This is a larp designed by Alex Brown, who arrived at larp through situationist games and psychogeography. He's interested in the politics of play, and larp as an act of resistance – particularly in urban settings.

The Last Thing to Die

In this scenario-larp, designers Susanne Gräslund and Anders Hultman put their finger on the painful moments of our history, this time the oppression of Jews during World War 2. They will run their scenario The Last Thing to Die (SE) at Grenselandet this December.

The setting is Norway during the German occupation. You will play Jewish families living under an increasingly oppressive regime that confronts them with difficult choices to make, for yourself and your loved ones. Many of you will not survive, but there is always hope.

To hope is to be human. We always look for good signs, and ways out of difficult situations. We are also very bad at truly imagining the worst. This scenario is about how people can become slowly trapped, step by step, through processes of normalisation, which make us accept small sacrifices until there is no turning back from a terrible end. We often think that the bottom must have been reached now, and that it will soon become better if we just manage to endure the current hardships. We cling to what hope we have and believe that in the long run, truth and justice shall prevail.

Susanne Gräslund & Anders Hultman have previously written scenarios such as “The Testimony” and “Women”. Susanne has co-organized the larp “Knappnålshuvudet”. Anders has co-organized larps like “A nice Evening with the Family” and “Fortune & Felicity”, and he has been part of the organizational team behind the Stockholm Scenario Festival since 2013.

Dance of Destruction

Grenselandet 2021 is pleased to announce its first larp on the program: Dance of Destruction by Danish larp designer and artist Nina Essendrop.

Dance of Destruction follows people who each have a burning desire to accomplish or create something extraordinary. But dedication comes with a price, and their private, everyday existence suffers when they totally commit to their goals. Dance of destruction is about choosing whether to focus on the big dreams or the everyday joys. Like many of Nina's larps, Dance of Destruction is fairly abstract, played through movement, drawing and physical interaction. Each player gets to interpret their own story from the abstract actions they and others take.

Announcing Grenselandet 2021

                 How do we cope with the long darkness of winter?

By holding on to the light.                   

On 10-11 December Grenselandet hopes to be that spot of light in the darkness: a place to take shelter, to indulge in good food and good conversation, and of course a place to play larps. Grenselandet 2021 aims to be a small, cozy affair, with a program featuring new and old high quality larps, and padded with plenty of time to catch up with friends. 

If you are new to (chamber) larp, or new to the Oslo scene, Grenselandet is the place to get to know the community and to explore the imaginative possibilities that larp has to offer, at an affordable price. Tickets are 100 NOK, and include at least one larp. If you are traveling to Oslo for Grenselandet, stay tuned for hosting options. 

You can still join us!

Grenselandet will be small this year - but you will not be alone in the black box! Come and join us! 

This year's festival will be special - with many fewer participants and larps than a normal year. But we still think it will be a memorable experience. We have had many cancellations, and we are now offering more tickets for those who still want to join. Most of the larps in the programme do still have spots. It's also very OK to join only because you want to join the evening programme - but you still need a ticket.

Some of the things we have to offer:

• More than 10 amazing larps
• A place to gather before and after the larps - with safe distancing in place
• A small concert Friday night
• Video link to a larper's retreat in Belarus
• A special event for Saturday night

You may also buy a ticket at the door, but you make life easier for everybody if you buy it in advance. 

Buy your last-minute ticket here.