An unborn child looks at its possible future parents. They are members of reindeer herding families that are falling apart. The child looks back in time to find out why, and starts doubting whether there really is a place for it in the future.
After the party everything is changed. Lajla notices it right away. Sara’s eyes are empty, she is afraid of the dark, afraid of her own shadow. And even though Lajla promised not to interfere, she just can’t leave it alone. She must find the person responsible.
A play for teenagers and young adults.
Premiere in 2023.
A family welcomes an underaged refugee. She has experienced war. Soon her presence reveals the flaws and dysfunctions within the family space.
Translated to English and French.
A family of four escapes from war, imprisonment and insecurity. But the peacefulness that meets them in the new country is deafening in a completely different way.
For when everything is in order, and life is finally to be lived, a different kind of struggle starts. They must fight to settle and accept the memories of their homeland.
Premiering at the National Theater in Norway the 14th of March 2020. Cancelled due to the pandemic, and transformed into a audio drama in January 2021.
From the beginning of the 19th century until well into the 20th century, tribes and indigenous peoples, including the Sami, got sent on tours in Europe and the United States. In traditional clothing, with the tipi and reindeer, they were exhibited in zoos for curious inquisitors. In Human Zoo, we follow a Sami family's journey from open plains to enclosed areas, which are getting increasingly narrower and narrowerr. The relationship between mother and father is bad. Grandma has started coughing a lot. The son is tormented by the spectators. And the daughter is asking the questions the parents have difficulty answering. The narrower the room outside, the clearer the conflicts between family members become.
The Sami National Theater Beaivvas is putting up Human Zoo in 2019, the premiere taking place at the National Theater in Oslo on the 4th of October.
Translated to Sami language.
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?
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.
Reading at the Norwegian Drama Festival in June 2017. Reading in Konstanz, Germany in 2019. Premiere in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2020.
Translated to Swedish.
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.