Svanhild (NO)

The Theatre of Cruelty's version of Henrik Ibsen's unfinished work, Svanhild (1860), premiered in March. The well-established experimental theater company views this as a sequel to its world premiere, in the spring of 2009, of Ibsen's opera fragment The Mountain Bird (1859), a performance foreign theatres and theater festivals continue to show interest in.

Svanhild is written in prose, and the play was, as The Mountain Bird, left unfinished by Ibsen. The efforts was, however, taken up a few years later, and in 1862 the story was published under the title Love's Comedy. This piece is in verse form and a part of the cast of characters was changed.

Svanhild is a strong and self-confident character, pointing towards several of Ibsen's later female characters. The play takes place on a bright summer day in the bourgeois idyll on Skillebekk, where people live sheltered and protected lives.

The Theatre of Cruelty transplants the tradition of the French dramatic innovator Antonin Artaud into Mrs. Halm «Hanging gardens by Drammensveien» and Ibsen's play is given an unexpected timeliness.

Produced by: Theatre of Cruelty. Director: Lars Øyno. Sets: Tormod Lindgren. Costumes: Gjøril Bjercke Sæther.

Cast: Miguel Steinsland, Kirsti Sørlie Hansen, Filip Amundsen Stav, Hanne Dieserud and others.