Larp in Kamensky forest

Anita Myhre Andersen & Erik Aarebrot

Download the PDF of this article

In October 2008 some 40 people gathered in the Kamensky forest outside Minsk, Belarus, to arrange and participate in the larp “1943”. This larp was the product of one and a half year of work. For many of the participants it was the first larp they had ever attended. As such, the larp was intended to serve both as an educational activity on the topic of the Second World War (WWII) and as a training case for a group of Belarusians on how to organize larps. We, the two article authors, participated in “1943” as the only foreigners. This article is an account of our experiences with helping, training and finally participating in this Belarusian larp. Much of the work revolved around transferring larps from the Nordic cultural context to the context of Belarus. Many larpers will probably nod in recognition when reading of the many challenges that the Belarusian larp organisers faced during their planning and implementation. In this respect, the article might serve as a check list for organising larps: in addition, we also try to share some of the unique experiences of shaping a larp and an educational programme in an authoritarian regime.