Club 7 was a cultural club in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway, active from 1963 to 1985. It was regarded a centre for

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

in Norway in the 1960s through the 1970s. There was a wide tolerance for alternative lifestyles, including homosexuality.

History

Club 7 was established in 1963 by Attila Horvath and Odd Schou. The first meeting took place at Kafé René at Lilletorget, Oslo. Among the pioneers was also poet Kate Næss, who is credited for inventing the name of the club. The name "Club 7" is supposed to mean the club should be "more than sex" (the number 6 in Norwegian is pronounced like "sex"). The

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

theatre

Stage 7 ''Stage 7'' is a 30-minute American TV drama anthology series that was broadcast on CBS from December 12, 1954, through September 25, 1955. This program premiered in December 1954 with the title ''Your Favorite Playhouse'' with all episodes being ...

( no, Scene 7) was started in 1966, with

Sossen Krohg Sossen Krohg (born Sossen Anker Olsen; 18 December 1923 – 12 February 2016) was a Norwegian playwright and stage and film actress. Personal life She was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. She was the daughter of newspaper editor Kristoffe ...

as artistical director. Other club activities were jazz concerts, poetry evenings, rock concerts, exhibitions, café and activities for children. The club had various locations over years, including Drammensveien 64, the Edderkoppen Theatre, the restaurant Kongen near Frognerkilen, and the Oslo Concert Hall. In the 1970s the club was located in

Vika Vika may refer to: __NOTOC__ Persons * often a short form of Victoria (and variants) in Eastern Europe * Vika Lusibaea (born 1964), Solomon Islands politician * Hilda Vīka (1897–1963), Latvian artist and writer * Ludo Vika (born 1955), Dominica ...

, in block D of Oslo Concert Hall, where it covered an area of 1,400 square meters, and had an average number of 300 visitors per evening. The club had its own library, gallery and newspaper. It hosted blues concerts, folk concerts and jazz concerts, movie shows and dance evenings. The theatre staged experimental plays by playwrights such as Ionesco, Fo and Cocteau. Among the theatre's greatest successes was a dance performance based on Gerd Brantenberg's novel '' Egalias døtre''.

Jens Bjørneboe Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (9 October 1920 – 9 May 1976) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a Waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society an ...

's play ''Tilfellet Torgersen'' () premiered at Stage 7 on 25 January 1973.Rem (2010): pp. 425–429 The theatre also showed a series of children's plays written by Sossen Krohg, starting with ''Skinka Nøff og Grynta som ikke ville bli julebord'' in 1975. The club closed in 1985 after bankruptcy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Club 7 1963 establishments in Norway Organizations established in 1963 Organizations disestablished in 1985 History of Oslo Culture in Oslo