Abraham's Children

At its webpage, The Norwegian Theatre writes the following, among other things, about Abraham's Children:

"The coexistence between Abraham's children has been filled with conflict. But the story about Jews, Christians and Muslims is much more. It is also the story of a fruitful cultural, intellectual and spiritual exchange, in which the three religions have grown richer due to close cohabitation.

Over the past 30 years, Tindberg has worked on theatrical plays with religious themes. In Abraham's Children, he promotes the values embracing and uniting the three world religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The Norwegian Theatre thinks there is still time to get together in the interest for cultural conflicts, parallels, long lines of thinking and an introduction to religions we may not have known had that much in common. Svein Tindberg's art of storytelling has given more than 90 000 the joy of finding community in a world where polarisation between religions keeps growing stronger.

Three religions - one book

In contemporary Europe, and The Middle East, Jews, Christians and Muslims live close to one another. The Muslim presence in Western Europe is relatively new. But Judaism and Islam have both been an integrated part of the otherwise Christian Europe for a long time. In Spain, at The Balkans and in parts of Eastern Europe, Islam has been dominating at times, and Jews and Christians have lived as minorities. In recent times, the situation has mostly been the opposite. Today, an increasing number of Muslims lives as minorities in Europe, a continent fundamentally formed by the Christian cultural heritage, and where a majority identifies as Christian."

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason for the award to Abraham's Children:

"The production of the year is unique in its genre. It holds high artistic quality, while insightfully, objectively illuminates a political discussion that suddenly became red-hot after the event turning Norway upside-down July 22 last year. Despite its serious theme, the production switches liberatingly between the sombre and humour, and it manages to entertain its audience while provoking reflection. The production is a pedagogic, thought-provoking presentation of the very foundation of our Christian culture. Written and performed by Svein Tindberg, who alone onstage maintains the very magic of theatre, and for more than two hours leads involving, immediate communication with the audience.

The production of the year is Abraham's Children at The Norwegian Theatre."

SOURCES:

The National Sami Theatre Beaivváš, beaivvas.no, 20.03.2019, https://beaivvas.no/nb/abrahams-barn/

The Norwegian Theatre, detnorsketeatret.no, 11.05.2020, https://www.detnorsketeatret.no/framsyningar/abrahamsbarn

The Hedda Award, 29.05.2012, http://heddaprisen.no/pub/heddaprisen/main/?&mid=1031&aid=1030

The Norwegian Touring Theatre, press release 11.06.2012

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.

Writer and date unknown, Vårt Land [Oslo]:
"Informative, alive and deeply significant"

Writer and date unknown, Klassekampen [Oslo]:
"... unites an important political message and high-quality performing arts."

• The Hedda Award 2012 - Production of the year

• The Hedda Award 2012 - Production of the year