The Catalyst is a performance based on a real event that took place in a northern border village in 2006. A designer from a global shoe company in South comes to work with some local artisans with the goal to develop a common shoe that could be produced locally for the global market. The play tells about the difficulties the village faces due to political and economical changes. It tells about tensions between people locally connected to roots and rights. It gives an insight into the negotiations between local and global economies and between cultural heritage, tradition and design.

The author of this play Yvette Brackman initiated the original event.
The audience members enact the play by reading it aloud line for line. The audiences subsequently offer their comments, which are thereafter incorporated into future performances of the work.

In this context, The Catalyst is performed in a semi-public meeting with artisans at the Sámi Culture Centre, Lujavre, Russia.

This meeting was part of a fieldwork that is being done by Yvette Brackman and Hilde Methi. The aim is to rethink the concept and see if we can make a shoe production company in Lujavre. The journey to Lujavre was part of a collaboration with Pikene på Broen.