Category: Ragnar di Marzo

Cecilia Campbell — Who Is Holding the Pen?

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What drew me to say yes to Echoes of Morantia was, first of all, that my brain went into popcorn mode. Ideas and associations started bursting immediately.

For example, how the project mirrors a fundamental human existential situation — the challenge of suddenly standing on a stage (read: life) without a finished script, without a backstory, and from there being asked to create meaning.

The theatre stage — and the act of filming — becomes a direct metaphor for life itself. The questions that arise in the script, in front of the green screen, are the same questions that arise in being (at least in my being):

Why am I here? Where do I come from? What should I do? Who am I?

“What happens when the journey ends?”

The script — read: life — is written as we live it, in an interplay between what we carry with us, the choices we make along the way, and chance (if such a thing as chance even exists).

And then there is the fact that the script is written by both AI and human.

That alone places the story — and all of us participating in it — in unfamiliar territory, and awakens questions about responsibility, free will, and who is actually “holding the pen.”

Is it really only The Child and The Director who are writing?

Or is there (spookily!) some other form of existence involved as well?

That the project is also a VR work made it even more enticing, since it is a format I have not worked with before — a format that further blurs the boundaries between time and present, places, our roles, the story, and the audience.

In short, I was drawn to Echoes of Morantia because it set an enormous number of thoughts in motion in my head.

Cecilia Campbell as the Mystic in Echoes of Morantia

More about Cecilia’s world, at FilmCafé

Åsa Älmeby Thorne – Entering with Open Presence

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Embrace

Embrace life and see what happens.

I will join this journey with open eyes, and things will unfold. I have a silent character in the beginning, but Embrace — her name is Embrace — will be present one hundred percent, and will most certainly make the others on stage question things, feel things, and be affected by her in different ways.

I cannot yet fully comprehend the vastness of the project, and it feels exciting to join the others in the cast and explore Echoes of Morantia together.

The other day, we decided what Embrace is going to wear, and I think it’s a nice outfit for her — a bit casual, relaxed, and simply… her.

It feels like diving into the unknown and seeing what happens. I will embrace my character, and I hope you will join us on this journey — with a VR headset.

The images show Åsa Älmeby Thorne during early rehearsals. She is not yet in costume as Embrace.

More of Åsa’s world, on IMDb

Sandra Enegård Hall – Keeper of Traces

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Being part of Echoes of Morantia

Over a ten-year period, we will meet to film – about one day every fourth month.
To grow older with the script, the ensemble, and the director… that is a rare gift.
Everything is allowed to ripen slowly, in its own rhythm.

As an actor, I’ve worked with many kinds of stories – theatre, spoken word, opera choruses, short films, and self-produced pieces. One of my favourites: “Let’s Play Hamlet” with the preschool class at Lilla Nacka School.
When I was little, I used to invite the neighbourhood kids to my puppet theatre performances – and in some way, I think I never really stopped.

Yes, I’ve been on and off the stage for most of my life. Even when I’ve stepped away from the theatre, it’s always been what I longed for.
So when Echoes came along – with its unique format and long time span – it was irresistible. In fact, I had been yearning for a long-term project… et voilà!

In Echoes, I play The Historian.
She begins quietly, observing – but her curiosity soon takes over.
She senses patterns and possibilities before the others do.
She sees connections, collects fragments, and listens. A witness, perhaps. Or something more?

I love to look for light in the dark – and comic glimpses in the serious.

What will we discover together, she and I – and we, as an ensemble?

To enter an artistic process like this – knowing a few things about the frame, and being deeply curious about the rest – that excites me.
I can’t wait to begin.

Sandra Enegård Hall enters Morantia — in costume as The Historian, inside our virtual theatre

More of Sandra’s world, at FilmCafé

Sovi Rydén – Into the Uncharted

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My first reaction when I read about this project? It sounded completely crazy.
Strange, peculiar, unconventional, totally out of the box.

Just my kind of thing! 😊

I was curious and wanted to know more. I met with Ragnar – and just like that, I was convinced. Yes, I absolutely want to be part of this wild and wonderful adventure.

That’s how I’ve always lived. No two days in my professional life have ever looked the same.

As an actor, I’ve had the privilege of stepping into dreamlike worlds – transforming into new and unexpected characters time and again. From heaven to earth and everything in between. I love it.

In recent years, I’ve also worked as a voice actor — and had my own voice cloned and digitized with the help of AI. Another curious twist in this era of fast-changing tools and storytelling.

And yes, I’ve also spent 38 years as a cabin chief for SAS’s long-haul flights — giving me the joy of discovering both astonishing places and the oddest little corners of planet Earth. What a ride!

And now, another journey begins – boundless and unpredictable. This time, guided by AI and VR: a journey to Morantia.

Over the next ten years, we will film 32 episodes. And I truly look forward to becoming “The Actress” in this strange, poetic world – alongside this wonderful ensemble:


Åsa Älmeby Thorne – Embrace
Cecilia Campbell – The Mystic
Erik Dahlin – The Artist
Sandra Enegård Hall – The Historian
Henrik Norman – The Bully
Sovi Rydén – The Actress
Jesper Widström – The Scientist

And guiding the process:
Ragnar di Marzo – Director
Pirandello’s Echo – AI Scriptwriter

Join the journey. It’s going to be fun! 🎬🎭

Behind her: the dreamlike theatre of Morantia, hand-crafted in Blender. Before her: a role still unfolding.

More of Sovi’s world, on her homepage.

Erik Dahlin – Between Worlds

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As a technician, I worked with the internet at the very beginning of its development, at a time when there was no content to fill it with. The technology was there, but the question was how it should be used in a meaningful way.

Today, internet is a part of our daily lives, and it would be hard to imagine a world without it. Many discuss the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what possibilities and dangers it offers. But the use of AI in computer science is not a recent discovery.

We used AI to maintain the core IP network with self-learning scripts, long before AI became common or easy to use. Still, technology continues to develop and create new possibilities. Ragnar di Marzo is a pioneer who now places Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence on the artistic roadmap with Echoes of Morantia.

When I read Ragnar’s script, I instinctively knew I wanted to be part of this epic journey. I was especially drawn to the mysterious nature of the narrative. Having read all of Haruki Murakami’s books — filled with dreamlike and supernatural elements — and being raised in the belt of superstition (Nås Finnmark), this was like coming home.

Together with the rest of the ensemble, we now prepare to step into the world of Morantia.

— The Artist

Erik stands mid-rehearsal — or perhaps mid-invention — on the stage of our virtual theatre. A ladder, a rowboat, and a set of scattered tools surround him, like the remnants of a world being shaped.
He’s not yet The Artist, his character in Echoes of Morantia. But he’s somewhere close. This is Erik — actor, creator, ensemble member — moments before stepping into the unknown.

More of Erik’s world, at FilmCafé


Henrik Norman — A Theatre Between Realities

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The first thing that captivated me in Ragnar di Marzo’s grand project, Echoes of Morantia, was an image I recognized as a variation of Böcklin’s famous painting Toteninsel — a motif that has fascinated so many viewers for nearly 150 years, myself included. It became my entry point into that dreamlike, mysterious, and existentially charged world — the winding adventure that a number of player characters are invited to step into.

Are they their characters, or are they actors performing parts assigned to them in a script they’ve just received? We don’t know. The starting point is, in any case, a theatre — at the intersection of illusion and reality — a point at which I’ve always thrived, both as a person and as an actor.

The script, Ragnar’s script, was developed in dialogue with an AI program. That alone could be a reason to join the project — to confront my own scepticism, and perhaps fear, of a development that seems to be running amok, full of both promise and peril. A way of facing the bull by the horns, so to speak.

Likewise, the VR world is largely unknown territory for me, and it feels incredibly exciting to step into it and see what it does to me as an actor. Echoes of Morantia offers a suggestive visual experience — and to inhabit it in a true ensemble drama is something I very much look forward to.

Behind the image. Henrik stands here on the stage of our virtual theatre — a custom-built Blender environment inspired by dreams, ruins, and the paintings of Böcklin. He is not yet his character. Not The Bully. This is Henrik — part of the ensemble, looking into the space where fiction begins.

More of Henrik’s world, on his homepage.