Coelacanth [see-lu,kanth] is an extraordinarily spirited performance about love, resurrection and how we learn to fear the dark.

With 12 musicians on stage, newly composed music and a theatre piece in three acts, Winter Guests has taken on their biggest project to date. Premiered at Festspillene in Bergen and later played at the Norwegian Opera in Oslo. Bjørnar Habbestad arranged and composed music for a 12 piece orchestra as well as conducting and performing as the shows flutist and musical director. Coelacanth is grandiose, humoristic and self-referential – an odyssey that spans from Tokyo to Sydney and New York. In Alan Lucien Øyen’s characteristic style elements from many genres, from pop culture to classical mythology is mixed and remixed.

«The music is the prime asset, it drives, caries, connects loose ends, and moves the action on stage ahead as it seems to drop off. It has also become the most important agent in important tempo and scene changes. (..) Sometimes it supports the story, other times it challenges it. (..) a rear treat in Norwegian theatrical life, and a gift for this play.» Karen Frøsland Nystøyl NRK