Paal-Helge Haugen on the world premiere of the novel Anne

Smiling author and dramaturge

- It's great that this old novel is getting a somewhat unexpected new life. Early on, after the book was published, a radio version of Anne was made, which in addition to Norway was broadcast in Sweden, Denmark and Poland. There were also plans to make a movie, around 1970, but it never got beyond the sketch stage," says Paal-Helge Haugen in a podcast from Kilden Teater.

- The fact that Kilden Teater contacted me to make theater out of the novel is really fun, says Haugen.

In the podcast, which is a conversation between Haugen and dramaturge at Kilden Teater, Endre Sannes Hadland, the author discusses, among other things, releasing a work and letting others process the material, in this case director Sullivan Lloyd Nordrum, musician and composer Åsmund Solberg, actor Ann-Ingrid Fuglestveit and, of course, Haugen's award-winning punkt novel, Anne.

The world premiere of the play will take place in Paal-Helge Haugen's home village of Valle in Setesdal on May 6, before it is performed in Kilden from May 11 to June 3, and again from August 11 to 13.