OT Northern Lights Season
Our Northern Lights series of script-in-hand readings on a Nordic theme opens with a double-bill of plays, over one hundred years apart, each taking a wry look at our ideas about Scandinavian culture.
A decade before he wrote Peter Pan, among J.M. Barrie’s first plays was Ibsen’s Ghost, an affectionate pastiche of the scandal surrounding plays like Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House. Responding with comedy to the moral outrage provoked by Ibsen’s plays, Barrie combines some of the most infamous aspects of the Norwegian dramatist’s works in a fast-paced melodrama that delighted contemporary audiences.
More than a century later, Finnish-Swedish playwright Joakim Pirinen took the idealistic stereotype of Scandinavia as the happiest society in the world and pushed it to its limits in The Good Family. First performed in Gregory Motton’s translation in the UK at the Royal Court in 2007, the play follows a seemingly perfect Nordic family through a day of blissful domesticity. Can anyone really be this happy?
The Good Family is presented by arrangement with Colombine Teaterförlag AB, Sweden.
Showcasing rediscovered classics, modern revival, contemporary drama and a specially commissioned new play, Northern Lights continues every Friday lunchtime until November 21.
Directed by Adam Karim
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) was a Scottish playwright, novelist, journalist and author of short stories. Born in Kirriemuir, Angus, he graduated from Edinburgh University before moving to London in 1885 to become a writer. He is best known for his creation of the character of Peter Pan, who first appeared in Barrie’s 1902 novel, The Little White Bird. Peter Pan’s most famous incarnation, in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, came in 1904, and was later adapted into a novel, Peter and Wendy. Barrie’s other plays included The Admirable Crichton, Quality Street and Mary Rose. He was made a baronet by George V in 1913.
Joakim Pirinen (b.1961) is one of Sweden’s most well-known, and well-loved, graphic novelists. His first graphic novel Välkommen till sandlådan was published in 1983 and featured the now iconic character Socker-Conny. Two years later, in 1985, Socker-Conny became the main character of an eponymously named graphic novel. Joakim also established himself as an artist, illustrator, author, and playwright. His play The Good Family was first staged in Stockholm in 1986 and first published in 1993, together with parts 2 and 3 of the Good Family trilogy. Since then, The Good Family has been repeatedly staged, both in Sweden and internationally. Joakim is still a regular contributor to the Swedish alternative comics magazine Galago, and his artwork is represented in museums such as Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Gothenburg Museum of Art.
Adam Karim‘s JMK Award Winning production of Guards At The Taj (Orange Tree) was nominated for a Stage Debut Award ‘252 and won the Eastern Eye Best Director Award ’25. He was previously Resident Director at The National Theatre Studio & Resident Assistant Director at The Donmar Warehouse.
Directing credits –
Before The Millenium (Oxford Old Fire Station), Julius Caesar (RADA), Macbeth (LAMDA) Guards At The Taj (Orange Tree), MANTELPEACE (Young Vic TP), Platform (East15), Pressure Drop (Immediate Theatre / The Yard / Schools Tour), Second Person Narrative (Rose Bruford @ Omnibus Theatre).
Assistant Director –
Adam was Donmar Warehouse Resident Assistant Director ‘23 (Clyde’s, When Winston Went To War With The Wireless, Trouble In Butetown), other Associate / Assistant Director credits include The P-Word (Bush Theatre, Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre) and Sorry You’re Not A Winner (Paines Plough).
Cast
Nicholas Bishop
George Tesman (Ibsen’s Ghost)
Laura Rogers
Thea Tesman
(Ibsen’s Ghost)
and Lena
(The Good Family)
Colin Mace
Peter
(Ibsen’s Ghost)
and Lasse
(The Good Family)
Debra Gillett
Delia
(Ibsen’s Ghost)
and Eva
(The Good Family)
Harry Singh
Janne
(The Good Family)