"you laugh and cry and even if you laugh so hard you cry, it's a deeply existential play from beginning to end" audience vote
There are brave theater managers!
Gunilla Röör at Norrbottensteatern is definitely one of them.
There are not many people who dare to give space on their big stage to a completely unperformed play by a Swedish playwright, a play that is not realistically recognizable in everyday life, but is treacherously easy to read, absurd and can be perceived as meaningless chatter. That's how my scripts are usually perceived, until they are shaped.
Seeing through the lightness of the text is not for everyone, but if one has dramatic imagination and life experience it is possible! And Gunilla Röör and her outstanding ensemble at Norrbottensteatern did it! They read and told me something amazing: they LOVED the play!
I was about to give it up and let it remain in the dark where it had been since I wrote it for 21 years ago. Certainly it has been read a couple of times over the years, partly at the theater that commissioned it but didn't stage it, and by other ensembles and the occasional freelance director. It always seems to appeal to directors but above all actors but so far not theater managers. probably because they have to think commercially and also have to get the theater's board on board, which is not always easy, because they prefer to bet on safe cards.
But then Gunilla Röör came!
And set the play in motion with all the energy and now it meets the audience and the audience is engaged, enthusiastic, surprised, listening – they are laughing – and it's wonderful and when the more serious layers of the play are exposed the excitement is high and they thank the actors with standing ovations and cheers. They shout that the play is great. They have been part of something, something they didn't realize when they settled into their seats.
For me, it is of course absolutely essential to see that my text works. That it can be transformed into very funny and touching theatre. The play is funny, poetically, crazy and at the same time very sad. Actually, it's a kind of absurd grief play, but packed with love, all that love we carry inside and that we never express because wine doesn't HAVE TIME or doesn't DARE or doesn't have a YOU to love. Or because we may have unreasonable expectations of each other, on life, on love?
It was simply awful fun to see the play, I've seen it twice now and it's clear that with such a vivid text, as they themselves say, it constantly changes a little depending on the audience's response, depending on how the words come out of the mouth, depending on the rhythm and emphasis of the evening. and it's amazing. After every gig, said Gunilla Röör, the audience comes forward and tells what it's about and it's always different things. Because everyone can see their own in it. All the characters in the play are lovable as they struggle with their dreams and shortcomings.
I am glad that the actors enjoy playing the text ” your wonderful text!” , and I am glad that this text flies all the way forward and into the audience! For me this is theatre! for me, theater is not a depiction of a reality as we all know it ” should ” look to be ” konst”. I think that's boring.
I am so happy that the audience, several hundred people every evening, seems to share my opinion. This is ( ALSO ) teater! Not everything has to be like Norén, Fosse or the classics. Alltså, precisely this to SEE that it works… it makes me very inspired, because it actually means that many of the more cautious theater managers may be slightly mistaken in the idea that audiences always want something well-known and recognizable. In the audience I met in Luleå, there was definitely an open attitude, welcoming, nyfiken, and willing to go along with a piece of drama with slightly different content than expected. The second note, which I prefer, which is a little twisted but still rooted in life's pain and love, it works! But what an ensemble – high-class look in all fingers ! And so wonderful with a director. Sara Giese, who had the courage to take on Guinea Pig Nights. First of all, it's fun, but after a while the actors discover the deeper layers during the rehearsal time, and yet it must be served in a tone not that to which we have been accustomed, which sounds like ” real”. The seriousness should come across despite the loftiness. A whirr. Det är bra. I like that. And I strive for that. And IT works ! and it is an interesting challenge for the actors! They fix it!!! But it is clear that any text can fall flat to the ground in the wrong hands – but at Norrbottensteatern Marsvinsnätter has ended up in excellent hands, for its brilliant premiere! The proof of that is the audience's enthusiasm!
För mig, as a playwright, is it perfect…. perfectly…. wonderfully!
