Jon Fosse - Fosse: Plays Six

Twenty years ago, Jon Fosse was known as a poet and essayist in some well-read circles; his future success as a dramatist was at its very beginning. Maybe one could call him the reluctant playwright at the start of this period. His plays were being produced in Norway, although with a certain caution, later to move across the borders to insightful and quality-hungry theatres, most of them small, with underground status.

Directors were fascinated by the musical, stringent minimalism and the profundity yet apparent simpleness of his stories.

The Swedish author and critic Leif Zern, who has followed Fosses career from the beginning, should, eventually, write The Luminous Darkness, an enlightening book about Fosse which highlights the mysticism of the authors steadily growing body of work. As the years have passed, agents, directors, translators and other fiery spirits have transferred the flaming torch between theatres in various countries.

From having been a modestly recognised author, Jon Fosse now has a weighty and luminous name as a dramatist across continents. Only India and Africa are left. His more than forty plays are translated to all the European languages as well as to Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. We know of at least 900 productions, and I believe that an unspecified number of performances take place without our knowledge and without payment of any copyright. At the beginning of the 2000s, a tsunami of Fosse plays premiered in Germany as well as France, where the wave is still rolling on. The great French director Claude Rgy put Fosse on the world map with his outstanding and sensational production of Someone Is Going to Come in 1999 at Thtre Nanterre in Paris. After that, a long line of Europes leading directors continued to stage a series of Jon Fosses plays. It was almost like a race. The first English production, The Child, took place at the Gate Theatre in London in 1998, directed by Ramin Gray. The performance was met with mild and courteous interest. A few productions followed, among them Nightsongs directed by Katie Mitchell in David Harrowers translation at the Royal Court, but that was a less successful event. It proved difficult to mount another attempt with any great success. Several other translators tried their talents on Fosses texts, among them Geoffrey Mutton and Ann Henning, and in USA, Sara Cameron Sunde. But the truly great artistic break-through in UK would not happen until May 2011, when Fosse finally managed to bring English critics as well as audiences enthusiastically into his world. I am referring to the recently tragically deceased French director Patrice Chreaus illuminating, vibrant staging of I Am the Wind at the Young Vic in London, in Simon Stephens version. It muted all resistance in England. Simon Stephens and Patrice Chreau travelled to Jon Fosse in Bergen before the rehearsals. Simon told me later: It was a special night. One of the most beautiful nights in my working life. It felt like a special honour to spend the evening with these two towers of European theatre.

Welcome to Fosses illuminating darkness!

Characters

SHE

HE

RAMBUKU

Rambuku premiered at Det Norske Teatret

The Norwegian Theatre 2 February 2006.

Director: Kai Johnsen

Designer: Kari Gravklev

Cast:

She: Ragnhild Hilt

He: Svein Erik Brodal

Rambuku: Morten Espeland

A living-room

An elderly woman in an overcoat and with a small bag over her shoulder

An elderly man in an overcoat

SHE

So

yes

yes here we are

quite short pause

and how often havent we been

standing here

quite short pause

like this

quite short pause

it is as if

we have always been here

quite short pause

just been here

quite short pause

year in and year out

have you and I

been here

quite short pause

always

short pause

and you dont say anything

Why dont you say something

quite short pause

cant you say something

quite short pause

dont just stand there

please

quite short pause

you just stand there

quite short pause

and look and look

yes

quite short pause

but dont do it

dont just stand there

and look and look

cant you do something

quite short pause

say something

short pause

why dont you say something

surely you can say something

talk to me

cant you

quite short pause

you can

cant you

quite short pause

say something then

short pause

oh well

just stand there

then

just stand there

quite short pause

yes

yes why dont you

quite short pause

but it cant just be

like this

quite short pause

no

no thats not possible

Quite short pause

And why wont you say anything

Long pause

But do you know

quite long pause

yes

yes that todays the day

when you and I

are going to Rambuku

you know that

laughs briefly to herself

were going

all the way to Rambuku

quite short pause

you know that

dont you

quite short pause

you know that

right

short pause

but why cant you answer

say something

say

yes say if you know it

say if you know that today you and I

are going to Rambuku

quite short pause

but you dont answer

dont say anything

quite short pause

no matter what I say

you dont answer

but its true

that today you and I are going

to Rambuku

quite short pause

for you know that far away somewhere

there is Rambuku

quite short pause

and there we shall live

there you and I

shall live now

Short pause

Yes we shall

Quite short pause

You and I

shall live there

quite short pause

yes

quite short pause

and do you know

what its like in Rambuku

no

I dont suppose you do

short pause

in Rambuku there are angels

and trees

trees that are

almost

translucent

and they sway in the wind

quite short pause

and there are bright birds there too

yes

there in Rambuku

and many people I know

and many people you know

are already in Rambuku

quite short pause

they are there

quite short pause

yes all those I miss

are there

quite short pause

all those I havent seen

for a long time

theyre there

yes

yes and your friends too

they too are there

yes theyre there in Rambuku

you know that

quite short pause

and if you dont know it

it doesnt matter

yes not as long as

I know it

quite short pause

for Rambuku exists

whether you know about it

or not

I know that

yes

Short pause

And in Rambuku

there are

quite short pause

such big trees

and such big birds

laughs to herself

yes

yes big birds

quite short pause

no the birds are not as big as houses