Baktruppen (The Rear Guard) has been canonised as a performance art collective that
insists on dismantling theatrical conventions and expectations. In theatre and performance studies, Baktruppen’s anti-attitude towards notions of artistic quality, theatrical conventions and “doing good” has been particularly highlighted. This article
proposes a reading across the archive of their oeuvre and finds an ongoing political
attempt to oppose nationalism and imperialism in Norway in the context of the selfconfident Nordic welfare state in decay. Baktruppen’s explicit political critique of the self-satisfied development programmes launched by the Nordic countries has, however, been overshadowed by the reception given to their formalist experimentation.