Spex (theatre)

Spex is a traditional Swedish and Finnish form of studentikosen amateur theater. The word Spex is derived from the Latin word here spectaculum ( " play" ).

Theater form

Spex are a form of comedy that usually treat historical motives, but mix them blindly through each other and place them in a new context. Also, people and events of current affairs are often involved in the action with. The whole thing gets thereby greatly anachronistic traits.

Reimung

There are two types of Spex: Passing the dialogues of rhymes, so it's a Spex the so-called Uppsala school, the dialogue is absurd, so it's a Spex Lund School

Music

In addition to the drama, there is a very large share of vocals. This most popular tunes ( everything from classical to pop to rock music) provided with a new text that is just like the normal dialogue of many puns. The instrumental accompaniment can range from a piano to a symphony orchestra.

Interactivity

An important element of the Spex is the interactivity of the audience, which can affect the action on stage to a large extent. Very widespread is the custom omstart after particularly good songs, word jokes or stunts to call ( in German: restart). Then the actors are called upon to repeat the scene immediately. Mostly, they do it in a different way than the first time.

Dissemination

Spexgruppen there are mainly in the universities and colleges in Sweden and Finland. Most of these groups consist of students and young academics. The performances take place, however regular public and attract a large number of people.

History

The origins of the Spex date back to the years around 1550 back in Uppsala as students began to play classical theater pieces in Latin, to practice in just this. By the time you began to write their own pieces that slid gradually more and more into the humorous. The first Spex according to modern tradition took place in Uppsala in 1851 and was called Trollflaskan ( German: The Troll, or the magic bottle). 1874 was the first Spex Lund instead ( with a written piece in Uppsala ) and reached at the end of the 19th century there high esteem. At the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm began in 1867 and 1948 Spex perform at Chalmers in Gothenburg. The late 60s and early 70s the Spextätigkeit began to take off, as it increasingly turned against ancestral traditions. However, this was short lived and by the end of the seventies took the Spextätigkeit back strongly. Also at the newly founded colleges and universities in Sweden were formed gradually Spexgruppen, while nowadays the traditional university locations several Spexgruppen work (for example, at least 14 in Stockholm).

Traditions

Many Spexvereinigungen have a large number of traditions when it comes to rituals, badges or parties. The first known Spex, in which women have played, found in 1975 in Lund instead. Until then, only men have held all roles. Nowadays, however, it does provide that a cross-dressing takes place, that is, that women playing male roles and vice versa.

• Theater ( Finland)
• Theatre (Sweden)
• Theater Genre