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This afternoon I headed up to the Skärborgarnas Hus in order to meet Peter. He was entrusting me with the keys as a sort of go between. My job was to hand them to Kerstin when she arrived. Along with me, there was also a chap called Odd who was there to learn how to operate the seat removal system in the theatre.
We were all there as part of Trosa Riksteater, ahead of the latest production: Idlaflickorna by Kristina Lugn. Lugn is quite famous in Sweden. She was a poet, writer, composer, agent provocateur and was born in Tierp*.
According to Nicoline, she was apt to speak her mind no matter where she was. She sounded an awful lot like Miriam Margolyes in that respect.
Anyway, Idlaflickorna is, possibly, her most adored play. It features two women who meet on holiday and discuss everything you could imagine and more. According to Jonas, the play has lots of words. Apparently, a lot of them are used in clever wordplay. Obviously, I didn’t get that but, watching and listening closely, I did get the sense of the play.
In an attempt to not publish spoilers, that’s all I’m going to write about the play, except to say that the two performers were Carina Perenkranz and Pernilla Parzyk, and the play was directed by Victor von Schirach.
A word on the direction first. It’s always going to be difficult directing a two hander where the only action is standing up and sitting down, particularly a play that depends on its wordplay to get it through. For me, I don’t think the director was particularly successful. Of course, I can’t comment on the dialogue.
The two women were fine, though I thought Carina was better, more natural, while Pernilla felt like she was acting. To be fair, that may have been the intention. If so, it worked too well.
The biggest thrill of the night, however, was the attendance. The seats were almost full. The committee should be happy with that.
Included in the audience were Nicoline, KSP, Jonas and Anna Boom-Boom. And, after the play, they kidnapped me for a bit of a pop-up birthday party with cake, ice-cream, bubbly and great conversation.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time I’d seen Nicoline today. She drove over, earlier, mere minutes after Mirinda left for uni. She dropped off a birthday present for me: another rocking chair which matches the one she bought Mirinda for her birthday back in April. A previous owner had started to strip the paint off mine, so I heralded my intentions of finishing the job, then painting it multi-coloured.
I’d already had a present from Mirinda and a slew of them from Fiona, so I was feeling very blessed and loved.
The impromptu party went on for a few hours which was surprising because it was a school night and three of them had to go to work tomorrow. After they left, we stayed on and gossiped till gone midnight, keeping Nicoline up well after her normal bedtime.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself, possibly a little bit too much given my rather unsteady trip out to the car afterwards.
I should mention the fact that I tried a bit of self-immolation by backing into a wall candle. I ruined a perfectly good shirt. Ironically, I was wearing my Joan of Arc t-shirt but, unlike the saint, it survived any real harm.
* The reason this is relevant is because I spent a few days there, back in 2022. You can read my ‘adventures’ here.
