A TOUGH RUN-UP TO THE IBSEN MARATHON
Actress Ann Ingrid Fuglestveit-Mortensen is in the midst of intense rehearsals ahead of the premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s Complete Works in 78 Minutes.
Knut Nærum has written a comedy in which three actors are set to play a total of 131 roles in less than an hour and a half.
“A crash course in Ibsen,” wrote NRK reviewer Andreas Diesen following the play’s world premiere at Apotekergaarden in Grimstad in 2009. The production has played to sold-out houses in Oslo and Bergen, and now Nærum has adapted the script for Kilden . The framework is the same—all the highlights from Henrik Ibsen’s body of work—but the play has been updated with local references and current political issues. And in true Nærum style, the text is packed with humor, irony, wordplay, and intellectual, dry-witted observations.
The actors at Kilden rehearsals in August. Ann Ingrid Fuglestveit-Mortensen, Steffen Mulder, and Lars Emil Nielsen will perform 52 shows from October through December. With a total of 131 roles over the course of an hour and a half, things will be hectic both on and off stage for Fuglestveit-Mortensen and the other two actors.
“You need to be in good physical and mental shape. There’s a lot of lines and staging to memorize, and we have to quickly switch between characters and costumes,” says Ann Ingrid Fuglestveit-Mortensen, who doesn’t mind being busy at work in the slightest.
“I like to go all out on stage. Even though the pace wasn’t quite as fast, it was still pretty wild when we performed *Gutta i juletrehuset* last year. We had a blast,” she says. There will be slapstick, lots of singing and music, and a wide range of genres on display: musicals, action films, splatter, puppet theater, and highbrow literature.
Director Audny Chris Holsen is convinced that she has the right team on stage.
“There’s going to be a lot of excitement, and the play is going to demand a lot from them. But they’re experienced and full of energy. I’m convinced this is going to be fun,” says Holsen.
Text: Nina Zachariassen