Into the City's Secret Life

From Grimstad and Finsland, authors Torborg Igland and Gaute Heivoll write about life behind the facades in Kristiansand.

Torborg Igland and Gaute Heivoll are two of the Southern Norway-based authors who have written the text for the production *Kristiansand.Nå*. Theater director Amalie Nilssen invited them to delve behind the facades, into the unvarnished reality of which we are all a part. The authors gladly accepted the challenge and have each contributed a monologue.

“It was an honor to be asked to contribute to this project. The theme really resonated with me; looking behind the facades, into the city’s secret life—it’s exciting,” says Torborg Igland, who was born and raised in Grimstad.

takes a closer look His fellow author Gaute Heivoll didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation either.

“I often take on commissioned works because such projects can take my writing in new, unexpected directions,” says Heivoll. Growing up in the small village of Finsland has shaped his writing, as has the tension between city and countryside.

“Kristiansand has always been the major city that Finsland has had to relate to—and contend with,” says Gaute Heivoll. He believes that everyone from the periphery must orient themselves toward the major centers and is shaped by this imbalance of power.

“It might make you take a closer look at yourself and where you come from. And it probably triggers an inferiority complex. My relationship with Kristiansand is a bit like the moon’s relationship with the Earth; I circle around, but the forces of gravity keep me anchored,” says Heivoll.

Text for Theater
Torborg Igland is the author of four young adult novels. She is also the festival director of the Ibsen and Hamsun Days in Grimstad. As a partner of Kilden , the festival Kilden coordinated contact with the authors who were approached. At the same time, Igland herself was asked if she would write one of the monologues, and she finds writing for the theater exciting.

“Theater as an art form is fascinating. It is said that an actor’s primary task is to immerse themselves in the lives of others. So writing for the theater can certainly be seen as a humanistic endeavor,” says Igland.

The request from theater director Amalie Nilssen came after she had heard the monologue *You Have Written These Wonderful Lines*. Igland adapted the text, together with director Anne-Karen Hytten, into a play based on texts about and by Knut Hamsun. The play was performed in the courtroom where Hamsun’s trial took place after the war.

Igland has now submitted her first script to Kilden . It’s her take on what life is really like behind the facades in Kristiansand. She has worked in the city since 2005 and knows it well.

“Sometimes I think Kristiansand is a bit cramped, and that there’s actually more openness—and less social control—in a town like Grimstad. And then there’s that sense of generosity that comes with being the ‘big brother,’ which we in the surrounding small towns sometimes long for,” says Torborg Igland before concluding:
“I love Kristiansand. Kilden, the bustling life on Markensgate, Fiskebrygga, Grønningen Lighthouse. And the Japanese cherry trees in full bloom on Rådhusgata. It’s a lovely city.

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Text: Amund Hestsveen