Swedish text down below
The Swedish poet and playwright Kristina Lugn had a unique literary style which blended the mundane with the profound, romantic longings with pitch black existentialism and sprinkled throughout with a huge dose of humour. “Nattorienterarna” is one of her most beloved plays and could perhaps be described as a Swedish cousin to Becket’s “Waiting for Godot”. This is the first time the play is staged in Teater Brunnsgatan 4 since 1998 when it premiered there with Lena Endre and Pernilla August in two roles of Vera and Bricken (a performance which included live fire effects on stage which allegedly scared the life out of Ingmar Bergman). A new generation of all female cast and creatives have now made their own version of this modern Swedish classic which and received rave reviews for their sold out run earlier this year.
Vera and Bricken are both teachers at the same school and one of them has had an affair with the other ones husband. We meet them in the darkest hours of the night in a suburb somewhere in Stockholm. They were not expecting to meet anyone else there, let alone each other. They are each on a mission to try and navigate trough the darkness armed with a flashlight and a map. But the night they find themselves in is perhaps better described as a state of mind than an actual place. A state of mind one might need more than a map to navigate, perhaps in these dark times we are currently in we even to put on our armour in order to find the courage to keep moving forward. This is a play about allowing yourself to get lost in language through poetry and the make believe of the theatre. It’s not so much a story about trying to free oneself by escaping from reality, but rather about giving reality itself wings and setting it free.
Credits:
By: Kristina Lugn Director: Melody Parker Performers: Jenny M Jensen, Janna Granström Set & costume design: Agnes Östergren Light design: SUTODA Sound design: Elias Shapiro* Technician: Kristian Cavdarovski Pressfoto & Poster : Fredrika Eriksson
Denna föreställning är textad med engelsk text
Vera och Bricken, som våra hjältinnor heter, hör inte vad de själva sjunger. De är inte främlingar, men inte heller väninnor. Kanske är de kärleksrivaler? Det är svårt att säga, när verkligheten har bytt språkdräkt och alla mammor gått i barndom. Mörkret faller. Är vi ensamma här?
Nattorienterarna är inte en pjäs om idrott. Den är inte heller en dokumentärskildring i konventionell mening. Men visst har jag haft nytta av mina erfarenheter som skrivmaskinslärarinna. Varken Bricken eller Vera arbetar på Byängsskolan längre. Gillis Ignell och Rune Nylander har gått i pension och vad Stickan Ogebratt sysslar med i pannrummet nu för tiden vågar jag inte spekulera i. Jag vill att dramat ska fortsätta när pjäsen är slut. Och att ordet "verklighetsflykt" inte ska betyda att fly från verkligheten, utan att ge flykt åt den. – Kristina Lugn