The Americana Trilogy – American folklore, bodyhorror, cults, and cowboys through a European lens

Application summary

Americana is a trilogy of theatre works by Glitcher, examining the pervasive influence of American culture on Europe and the Nordic region. Through grotesque humour, body horror, and pop-cultural references, we explore how American myths of violence, purity, celebrity, and capitalism shape our shared imagination. The trilogy includes: The Porn Horror Musical 2 (2023–): A touring success across the Nordic-Baltic region, blending porn, horror, and spectacle to reflect on the commodification of bodies. CULT (premiering 2026, Teater Får302, Copenhagen): A Nordic collaboration exploring cults, myth-making, and bodily sacrifice through American hippie culture and doomsday mentality. Horseplay (in development): Tackling youth, cowboy tropes, purity culture, and the human relationship to animals in a theatrical fever dream about sexuality, performance, and power. We have established initial planning with the Finnish Teater Universum and Sirius Teatern in regards to a co-production (premiere planned for 2027). We plan to expand the trilogy’s reach across Finland, the Nordic region and Europe. Our goal is to strengthen touring capacity, develop long-term networks, and build brave spaces for dialogue through art around American cultural saturation from a European perspective. To reach these goals we also aim to hire a part-time distributor to develop strategies and create the foundation for this work. By touring The Americana Trilogy, we aim to connect with venues, curators, and most importantly audiences. We think that the trilogy of works will instigate collective and critical discourse around the Americanized stories and narratives that we buy into, and that by extension shape our cultural identities. Through discomfort, humor, and shared pop cultural experiences, we hope to foster spaces where alternative narratives can emerge.