Billettar

Voices Between Two Lands

Vågespel

Like a patchwork quilt, Vågespel presents a mosaic of stories—each one a vivid scene from the lives of women who emigrated from Western Norway to America between 1825 and 1925. Drawn from letters, diaries, and recorded interviews, the mosaic reveals a layered portrait of lives lived between two worlds—lives shaped by work and song, loss, hope, and faith.

Performance

Vågespel on stage: experience Voices Between Two Lands as a live performance built on the lives and voices of emigrant women from Western Norway.


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Podcast

Vågespel is a 10-episode podcast following Norwegian women who emigrated from Western Norway to America between 1825 and 1925. Letters, diaries, and oral stories are woven together with historical sources to give you an intimate and vivid picture of their lives.

Stories

Documentary voices from another time: here you’ll find stories based on interviews with Norwegian women who emigrated around 1900. In addition, we share guest articles and women’s perspectives on everyday life, work, and society between 1825 and 1925.

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Vågespel on stage

Upcoming performances

Planned dates and locations will be published continuously. Stay tuned — more performances will be announced soon.

18.03.2026 kl 18:00 Galleri N. Bergslien, Eidfjord

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Stay tuned

News

  • Speledatoar — Vågespel tek scena!

    Speledatoar — Vågespel tek scena!

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    Vågespel

    No byrjar det verkeleg å ta form! Speledatoar for Røyster mellom to land, konsertframsyninga bygd over stemmene frå Vågespel, er no klare — og fleire kjem snart.  Framsyninga opnar med premiere 8. mars 2026 i den historiske Emigrantkyrkja på Radøy.  Etter det går Vågespel vidare til nye arenaer: 18. mars – Galleri N. Bergslien, Eidfjord4.–7. juni – Sandnesfest, Masfjorden (datoar og billettar kjem)13. september – Utstein kloster, Stavanger8.…

  • PRESSEMELDING

    PRESSEMELDING

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    Vågespel

    Premiere på “Røyster mellom to land” i Emigrantkyrkja – 8. mars 2026 Sundag 8. mars 2026, på sjølve kvinnedagen, vert det premiere på konsertframsyninga “Røyster mellom to land “ i Emigrantkyrkja, Sletta. Publikum vert med denne framsyninga invitert inn i ei sterk og poetisk forteljing om ulike kvinner frå Vestlandet som utvandra til Amerika…

  • Listen to the voices of Norwegian emigrant women during the Christmas holidays and again in 2026 — and don’t forget March 8!

    Listen to the voices of Norwegian emigrant women during the Christmas holidays and again in 2026 — and don’t forget March 8!

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    Randi Benedikte Brodersen

    Here in December 2025, we have met ten Norwegian women who represent many of the 750,000 Norwegians who emigrated—and whose lives were shaped by dramatic journeys, adventurous events, great dreams, freedom, poverty, harsh working conditions, heavy losses, and painful memories. The voices, memories, experiences, and everyday lives of these ten women form the substance of the book…

The Women Were There

Everything in Vågespel began with these women.

They were there in the sources — not as bold headlines, but as lives that had been lived. Between the faded ink lines, we found traces of them: mothers giving birth on the open sea, daughters crossing the prairie with dust in their hair, women carrying the future while the world shifted around them.

We followed those traces.
And as we searched for them, more women appeared — as if they were calling out from their own time, their own soil, their own story. One voice led to another. One life opened the door to the next. In this way, Vågespel grew: from a handful of destinies into a chorus of women’s voices.

These women are the core.
The starting point.
The root we always return to.

Through the podcast, the articles, the book — and now the music and the stage production — they carry us forward. They show that history is not only the stories we inherit, but the stories we discover when we truly listen.

They are the ones who hold the thread.

We are the ones who unravel it.

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Sown In The Past, Harvested In The Future — a story about the larger currents behind Vågespel

Vågespel did not grow out of a single life — but from a movement that stretched across oceans, centuries, and shifts in society. As we searched through letters, diaries, and interviews from Norwegian emigrant women, we quickly discovered that their lives lay like small seeds in a much larger soil: the history of women in Norway and America.

Denne teksten syner bakteppet deira.
Krafta dei stod midt i – og krafta dei var ein del av.

For while Gjertrud, Lina, Margreta, and the others were building their lives on the prairie or in the cities, battles were being fought elsewhere that shaped the world they lived in: voices demanding rights, women breaking boundaries, revolutions that began quietly — at a kitchen table, in a classroom, in a town square.

Here you encounter the historical currents that flowed beneath and around the emigrant women. Who carried the torch before them, who walked beside them — and who came after.

A journey between two lands.
A journey between two histories of women.
A journey that is not yet over.

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