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Series of drama performances, ranging from experimental works to the Classics

Drama on 3: Nordic Voices

Northern Lights: Nordic Voices

13/12/2015

Nordic Voices

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A celebration of contemporary Nordic writing in three new short plays.

For Radio 3's Northern Lights, three plays about modern life in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: Anna Bro's An Emergency, Arne Lygre's Nothing of Me and Jonas Gardell's Wild is the Wind.

Nordic Voices
by Anna Bro, Arne Lygre and Jonas Gardell

First broadcast in 2015 as part of Radio 3's Northern Lights season, three short plays explore contemporary life in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 

The first play, An Emergency by Anna Bro, is set at a Danish summerhouse. A mother (Deborah Findlay) and father (Tim McInnerny) have laid out a birthday spread for their daughter and anticipate her imminent arrival from the ferry port. However, nerves are frayed. This will be the first time they will have seen their daughter since her breakdown and both parents are desperately worried about the reunion. So when a group of teenagers, armed with a crate of beer and a stereo, choose to loiter on the beach directly in front of their summerhouse, anxiety levels go through the roof. Ana Bro's drama explores parent-child dynamics within Danish family life, and themes which are instantly recognisable.

Anna Bro is an award-winning Danish playwright.

Cast:
Mum . . . . . . Deborah Findlay
Dad . . . . . Tim McInnerny
Lisbeth . . . . . Susan Jameson
Daughter . . . . . Rebecca Hamilton
Girl . . . . . Katie Redford
Girl . . . . . Evie Killip
Boy . . . . . George Watkins
Boy . . . . . Leo Wan

Adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from a literal translation by Anders Lundorph
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko


The second play, Nothing of Me by Arne Lygre, is an innovative and moving play for voices, which follows a woman's (Amanda Hale) grieving process over a year. It explores identity, and how much we are defined by what other people think about us.

Arne Lygre is a leading Norwegian playwright, and former writer-in-residence at Oslo's National Theatre.

Cast:
Her . . . . . Amanda Hale
Him . . . . . Joel MacCormack
His Mother . . . . . Susan Jameson
Her Mother . . . . . Deborah Findlay
Her Son . . . . . Alexander Arnold

Adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from a literal translation by May-Brit Akerholt
Director: Anders Lundorph


The final play, Wild Is The Wind by Jonas Gardell, tells the story of an interview between a religious young man and the Pastor from his local church. The young man describes a recent intimate encounter with another young man, and struggles to reconcile the church's doctrines with his own feelings. As with much of Jonas Gardell's work, the play explores homosexuality and the church, and challenges the perception of Sweden's liberalism surrounding LGBT rights.

Jonas Gardell is an extremely popular playwright, author, comedian in Sweden. He wrote the internationally renowned trilogy Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves about the impact of AIDS in the homosexual community in the early 1980s.

Cast:
Pastor . . . . . Tim McInnerny
David . . . . . Matthew Tennyson
Youth Leader . . . . . Chris Pavlo
Tomas . . . . . Alexander Arnold

Translated by Nichola Smalley from a literal translation by Anders Lundorph
Director: Anders Lundorph

produced by Anders Lundorph and Sasha Yevtushenko.

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