The scenes at the palace of the armoured bears in Svalbard are some of the most dramatic in Part One of His Dark Materials. Having rescued Roger from the experimental station at Bolvanger, Lyra, Iorek Byrnison and Serafina Pekkala fly in a balloon to Svalbard to find her father Lord Asriel. The balloon crashes and Lyra is captured by patrolling bears who bring her before their king, the usurper Iofur Raknison. Iofur has not only stolen the throne from Lyra’s friend Iorek Byrnison he is also under the influence of her mother Mrs Coulter, who has promised him a daemon. Can Lyra engineer a confrontation between King Iofur and Iorek Byrnison?
Here you can see the Svalbard scenes performed on stage.
Part One: Lyra and Iofur shows Lyra’s capture and her interrogation by Iorek Byrnison where she tricks the bear king into believing she is a daemon rather than a spy.
Part Two: The Bear Fight starts with the arrival of Iorek Byrnison followed by Lyra’s explanation of her trick and culminates in the dramatic fight to the death between the two bears. Svalbard stage management shows the scene from the Stage Manager’s point of view and allows you to hear the complex series of lighting, sound, acting, and stage cues that underpin a scene in performance
You can also explore the changes made to the Svalbard scenes over the course of the production.
Captured by Bears shows an early rehearsal of Lyra’s capture by the bears.
Iofur deceived shows the scene between Lyra (Anna Maxwell Martin) and Iofur (Chris Larkin) during rehearsals. This earlier draft of the scene showed Lyra gaining Iofur’s trust by using the Alethiometer to find out secrets about his past. This was dropped from the final scene, simplifying the motivation and speeding up the narrative.
The Bear Fight Rehearsal shows fight arranger Terry King working with Chris Larkin and Danny Sapani to choreograph the fight.