Visually extraordinary and emotionally charged, Einkvan (Everyman) is a breathtaking new play from 2023 Nobel Prize-winner Jon Fosse, directed by Det Norske Teatret Artistic Director Kjersti Horn.
“Can’t you hear that I’m talking to you?”
A father, a mother, and a grown son make desperate attempts at connection. The son wants nothing to do with the parents. They look for him but he does not want to be found. Their struggles to communicate are intercepted by the echoes of people who look just like them – their mysterious doppelgängers.
Einkvan is a beautiful hybrid of contemporary art and theatre, interlocking the intimacy of film with the immediacy of live theatre. While the bodies that move about in front of our eyes are indistinct, obscured behind a translucent screen, two cameras vividly capture every intimate moment.
Fosse’s poetic text and Horn’s ambitious directorial vision bring us to the very heart of loneliness and the powerlessness of not being able to reach those we are closest to.
“There’s a tension that resonates between the lines. An intriguing ambiguity between what is said and what is left unsaid.” – Vårt Land
A strong directorial vision that points towards a new and exciting chapter in the history of the Norwegian Theatre, Einkvan had its world premiere in Oslo on April 25, 2024.
Cast: Vetle Bergan, Jon Bleiklie Devik, Hilde Olausson, Preben Hodneland, Marianne Krogh, Per Schaanning
Creative Team:
- Set and costume designer: Sven Haraldsson
- Lighting designer: Oscar Udbye
- Video director: Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
- Composer and sound designer: Erik Hedin
Jon Fosse was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway and is the recipient of countless prestigious prizes, both in his native Norway and abroad. Since his 1983 fiction debut, Raudt, svart [Red, Black], Fosse has written prose, poetry, essays, short stories, children’s books, and over forty plays. In 2023, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”
Kjersti Horn is a Norwegian theatre director, educated at the Dramatiska Institute in Stockholm. Her interpretation of Hamlet (Rogaland Teater 2014) received the Hedda Prize in 2015. From 2015 to 2019, Horn was resident director at the National Theatre of Norway, and is now Artistic Director of Det Norske Teatret in Oslo.
Horn is concerned with outsiders, something she often features in her work, whether staging classics or newly written plays. She has been behind a long series of critically acclaimed and award-nominated performances including nominations for the Critics’ Prize for Hamlet and Styrtet Engel (Nationaltheatret 2013), as well as Hedda Award nominations for best direction for Kaos er Neighbor til Gud (Nationaltheatret 2016), Valden’s Story (Det Norske Teatret 2017), Heritage and Environment (Den Nationale Scene 2018) and Scenes from a Marriage (Rogaland Teater 2019).
Supported by The Norwegian Embassy and the T.S. Eliot Foundation
Running Time: Approx 1 hour and 5 mins with no interval
Age Guidance: 14+
Content Warning: This performance contains a scene of violence that some may find disturbing.
There will be a post-show talk with members of the Einkvan company after the performance on Friday 16 May. The talk will be free for ticket holders.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
