The Radical Flu

This epilogue opens with a song, "Al Alba", or, "At sunrise". It is a 1975 song written by Spanish singer songwriter Luis Eduardo Aute. It quickly became a protest anthem for all those seeking political change at the end of Franco's 40 years long dictatorship. The song appeared some time after the last political executions of the Franco regime, 5 young political prisoners in their twenties, shot dead in the early hours of September 29, 1975. The composer wrote the song as a lover's lament, for the singer Rosa León, who, upon listening to it, commented - "This is not a love song, these are the words of someone who knows she will die in the morning". Aute responded that, although he had been commissioned to write a love song, he could not stop thinking of the young people who just lost their lives for their armed opposition to the dictatorship.

A last poem before death at sunrise, this seems fit for our last guest in The Radical Flu, which you are about to meet.

The Radical Flu is a radio play by Rose Hammer and part of Rose Hammer's National

Episodes series.

Reaching Winter Grounds is the seventh chapter of this radio play.

Extending outside the borders of Christiania, we reach further north in order to give attention to peripheral pasts. We find ourselves amongst the Sámi, who are protecting their land, their language and their culture after repeated attempts of assimilation from the Norwegian authorities. In late 1918 and 1919 the Spanish flu would arrive without warning, emphasizing an even greater abandonment by the state. Mortality rates were high.

Telling us their stories are: Johan Turi, the first Sámi author to publish a secular work in a Sámi language. The Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, with her poem “A Woman Lies Buried Under Me”. Elsa Laula Renberg, Sámi activist, politician and organizer of the first Sámi Assembly of 1917. Daniel Mortenson, key figure in the establishment of Southern Sámi interest groups at the start of the 20th century. And Ellisif Wessel, Norwegian writer, ally of the Sami and politician for the Labour Party.

Rose Hammer would like to address that the material vocalised within this script is spoken through the original words of the characters themselves.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF

KHiO. It has been recorded in collaboration with Notam and RadiOrakel.

The Radical Flu is a radio play by Rose Hammer and part of Rose Hammer's National

Episodes series.

No Steam Ahead is the sixth chapter of this radio play.

As the second wave of the Spanish flu strikes Kristiania, we meet an ensemble of characters from all corners of society around the dining tables of the city’s busiest restaurant, Dampen in Torggata 8. We sit down with Regine Stang, who for many years was a well sought-after private doctor in the city, but more recently has become the prison doctor at The National Prison for Women at Storgata 33, and at that the first in Norwegian history. She will be pivotal in establishing ideals around the “healthy body” through various public health campaigns such as ski clubs for women. Ragna Nielsen, founder and principal of her School for Latin and the Sciences, the first school where both sexes could go, and where women would teach boys, which at the time was something quite unheard of. A writer and a women’s rights activist, as well as critic and medium in spiritism. Pottit, an old alcoholic railway worker. Ruth, an equally old, but proud laundry worker. Sigurd Simensen, part of the inner circle of the new radical current in the Labour Party, and chairman of the Workers’ Councils central committee. Knut Hamsun, writer and soon to be Nobel Prize winner in Literature, who would also become a Nazi sympathiser. And last, but certainly never least, Martin Tranmæl, the volcanic rock of the Norwegian Worker’s movement.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF

KHiO. Recorded in collaboration with Notam and RadiOrakel.

The Radical Flu is a radio play by Rose Hammer and part of Rose Hammer's National Episodes series.
Eat the Rich is the 6th chapter of this radio play.

It is high summer in Kristiania, the capital city of Norway. The year is 1918. In Frimurerlosjen, the Masonic Grand Lodge, the kitchen is operating at full steam, serving a lavish banquet dinner for 180 wealthy guests. To serve those 180 wealthy guests, you have unnamed workers: the staff have been on their feet all evening catering to the exclusively male party. And there are, as well, some uninvited guests: one is the Spanish Flu. The other, male chauvinism. But in the end, love, and Socialism, wins.

Characters: UNNAMED KITCHEN WORKER, UNNAMED WAITER, Prime minister Gunnar Knudsen, and Ambortius Lindvig, businessman, and former banker.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF KHiO.
It has been realised in collaboration with Notam and RadiOrakel

The Radical Flu is a radio play by Rose Hammer and part of Rose Hammer's National

Episodes series.

Oslo, The City of Free Love, is the fourth chapter of this radio play.

We are in Akersveien, right in front of the Oslo katolske bispedømme, the Roman Catholic

Diocese of Oslo. Casually strolling in the street, a group of important gentlemen exchange

on art and politics, oblivious of The Plague that is ravaging the city, the Spanish Flu. These

gentlemen, Gustav Vigeland, Edvard Munch, Martin Tranmæl and Johan Scharffenberg, are

about to be hammered by the bishop of Norway, Luxemburger Johannes Olav Fallize, for

their decadent lifestyle.

Characters: Gustav Vigeland, sculptor; Edvard Munch, painter; Martin Tranmæl, socialist leader; Johan Scharffenberg, racist, medical doctor, psychiatrist, nationalist, lover of all ancient Greek practices - except drinking; and Johannes Olav Fallize, born in Luxemburg, and catholic bishop of Norway.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF

KHiO.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF

KHiO. The Radical Flu has been produced in collaboration with Notam and RadioRakel

We are in Vår Frelsers gravlund, Oslo, a cemetery in the capital city of Norway, mid-

November 1918. Everyone's who's anyone is here. Either vertically or horizontally.

Vertically, we are about to encounter Ingeborg Køber, an innocent young lady, and Johan

Scharffenberg, a doctor. Horizontally, but under the verticality of Gustav Vigeland's statue,

we encounter Aasta Hansteen, a legend.

Characters: Actress, director, primadonna, woman scorned - but not dejected,

JOHANNE DYBWAD, 51 years old. INGEBORG KØBER, psychic medium, newlywed, hounded into submission, 23 years old; JOHAN SCHARFFENBERG, racist, medical doctor, psychiatrist, nationalist, lover of all practices ancient Greek - except drinking, bad poet, 49 years old. AASTA HANSTEEN, painter, language pioneer, self-taught theologist and a flaying critic of the Norwegian church, nationalist/ anti-imperialist, suffragette, Sapphian, misandrist, bad poet, deceased.

The Radical Flu is a radio play by Rose Hammer and part of Rose Hammer's National

Episodes series.

Continuing the second chapter of this radio play, Roses are Red - part II.

As we pick up from last week’s episode, we follow Hanna Adolfsen, Rachel Grepp and Martha Tynæs into the Labour Party congress the 28th of March, 1918. A huge clash between the old reformists and the new radicals are about to take place. But what on earth does the fairy tale of Veslefrikk have to do with Martin Tranmæl reaching parliament? Is this just another of those RAT-icals scheming shenanigans!

Characters: Anna Johnsson, member of the Norwegian Labour Party; Hanna Adolfsen,

member of the Norwegian Labour Party and head of the Norwegian Labour Party's Women's

Federation from 1920 to 1923; Rachel Grepp, Norwegian journalist and politician for the

Norwegian Labour Party; Martha Tynæs, one of the pioneering members of the Norwegian

Labour Party's Women's Federation, which she presided from 1904 till 1920; Adam Egede-Nissen, Norwegian postmaster and politician; Madame Balabanoff, Russian Jewish-Italian communist and social democratic activist; Zeth Höglund, founder of the Swedish Communist movement; Ole O. Lian, Norwegian trade unionist and politician for the Labour Party; Martin Tranmæl, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party, and convert to communism after learning of the Russian Revolution of 1917; Fed-Up Norwegian Labour Party Member, Snotty Norwegian Labour Party Member, Worried Norwegian Labour Party Member, Fairy Norwegian Labour Party Member.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF

KHiO.

1918 was in Norway, Europe and the world, the year of the flu pandemic or the Spanish Flu,

caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The death toll of the Spanish Flu worldwide is

estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, making it one of the

deadliest pandemics in human history. In Norway, it took 15.000 lives. But next to that,

1918 was as well the year that WWI ended, and the year where the Norwegian Labour

Party, inspired by the October Revolution, radicalised to join the Communist International.

And half of humanity – women – had an important role in all this.

Characters: Anna Johnsson, member of the Norwegian Labour Party; Hanna Adolfsen,

member of the Norwegian Labour Party and head of the Norwegian Labour Party's Women's

Federation from 1920 to 1923; Rachel Grepp, Norwegian journalist and politician for the

Norwegian Labour Party; Martha Tynæs, one of the pioneering members of the Norwegian

Labour Party's Women's Federation, which she presided from 1904 till 1920.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF

KHiO. It has been realised in collaboration with Notam and Radio Rakel.

We are in Vår Frelsers gravlund, a cemetery in the capital city of Norway, mid-November
1918. We are about to witness the casual encounter between two titans of the Norwegian
Arts, Edvard Munch and Gustav Vigeland. They have been rivals in the arts since ... as far as
they can remember; they have been rivals in love in their Parisian bohemian adventures;
and now they are about to ruthlessly compete for the top position in the hall of fame of
Norwegian arts. Surprisingly, as they lock horns, a third character appears - is it Ibsen, the
genius? no, it is not.
Characters: Gustav Vigeland, sculptor; Edvard Munch, painter; and The Stone, carrara
marble monolith with the outlines of a hammer engraved on it, presiding over Ibsen's grave,
Mr. Bygmester Solness.

The Radical Flu has been commissioned by osloBIENNALEN with the kind support of KUF
KHiO.