Theatre

Undertow (2018)

Ferdinand grows up in a poor fisherman’s family. He has to quit school at an early age to start helping his father. There’s a war out on the ocean, and soon also a war on the shore. In a version of Norway that’s different than today’s, Ferdinand has to grow up and fight back.

It’s been three weeks since I turned twelve.
Dad says: Tomorrow’s the day. Tomorrow you’ll come with me out on the sea. From tomorrow on, you’re a fisherman.
I don’t sleep that night. I’m listening to their breathe. And when I’m sure that everyone’s asleep, I go out and hide in the log box. There’s not a whole lot inside of it. It’s still summertime. We barely make a fire. I used to hide here when we where younger and played hide-and-seek. No one ever found me.

Dad is (2017)

A mother, her son and her daughter are trying to live their everyday life in the father’s absence. He’s a political rebel and has gone into hiding. However, the government won’t let the mother be, and she gets called into the police again and again. One day she doesn’t return at all. How will the family cope? What does the struggle for democracy cost on a personal level?

GIRL
Low voice
What do we do if she doesn’t come?
BOY
She’ll be here.
GIRL
Does that make us orphans?
BOY
Suddenly angry
Dad is alive!
And Mum –
Mum as well.
Be quiet.

Interned (2016)

In order to ensure Norwegian sovereignty in the northernmost areas of the country, Norwegian authorities closed down rural schools and built new, larger boarding schools. Thus, at an early age Sami, Kven and Norwegian children were forced to move from their home to these schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native language. This play is based on testimonies from parents, children and teachers who were strongly affected by the Norwegian authorities' assimilation policy.

Premiered at the Norwegian Drama Festival in June 2017.

YOUNG BOY
At the front row, they put the Norwegian children, those of them with the nicest shirts and most clothes with them.
And then there are the Kven children, like our neighbors back home, eadni (*sami word for mum). They’re behind the Norwegians. And then, at the back, where I’m sitting, you find us. Us. The Fucking Laps.
That’s what he calls us, eadni.
When I can’t answer, when Biret besides me can’t answer.
His face gets all red and he screams it.
Fucking Laps, fucking Laps.
And eadni, at that point, I can’t help it, I have to laugh.

Scorched Earth (2014)

Finnmark (The northernmost county of Norway) 1944-1945. The Second World War is approaching its end. The Russians are on their way. Hitler orders the use of the Scorched Earth tactics in the North of Norway. Seven voices tell their stories from this period in time.

Premiered at the Norwegian Drama Festival in 2015.

2
Now the windows are crushed, and Mum pulls me back when I try to go into the apartment, no, no, Dad yells, get the girl away, and I make myself scarce, and I am a fly, flying away, but not entirely, and then, when they aren’t blocking the way, I fly in after them, and I see the broken glass on the floor, and the fallen bookshelves and the sofa cut in two, and the cloth coming out of it looks like moss. There is my teddy bear, there it’s lying, its body, I can’t see the head, and I fly away and I lose my wings and I fall, and I hit the floor and I smash my forehead in the soft plush. It’s sticking out, it’s sticking out of it, all that was inside is sticking out.