The Visit

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason for the direction award to Tyra Tønnessen:

"Good direction demands a clear idea. It demands a coherent concept. It demands a readable, unique and accessible performance expression for just this concept. The director has to grab hold of the material, knead it and shape it. Then the first reading rehearsal comes along, and the process needs to start over, for now as joint work. If the concept doesn't reach the actors, into them, it will never reach the audience.

This is no simple process. Friction creates heat. In the melting pot the rehearsal period may be the director's ideas are tested, at the same time as the play and the roles are handed over to the actors.

The recipient of this year's direction award demonstrates a strong will. Her productions document thorough and distinct work, control over the totality as well as the details, whether the direction is adjusted to the text or the text shaped according to the direction's idea.

This year the direction award is given to an instructor not for one, but two, works, which together prove the range of the director's ambitions and competence.

This year's best direction award goes to Tyra Tønnessen."

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason for the best supporting actress award to Renate Reinsve:

"In a production with an expansive role gallery all performers should preferably be clear and complete persons. But to achieve good ensemble play, it is also important that no character becomes more than the role intends. This is an extremely fine balance, and it is mastered to the full by this year's award winner.

In this absurd, but still pretty realistic performance people are confronted with existential challenges, and from being great humanists and principled in their choices, we see how they, one by one, give in to money and pragmatism. This gradual metamorphosis is presented with particularly great identification, clarity, comical talent and Fingerspitzengefühl by the award winner.

This year's best supporting actress award goes to Renate Reinsve."

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason for the best stage design/costume design award to Bård Lie Thorbjørnsen:

"Henrik Ibsen's detailed stage directions testify that one of the foremost playwrights in the world knew that on a theatre stage the things, too, speak to us. Sometimes they confide us more than what the lines are able to tell us.

The recipient of the best costume design and stage design award proves that casting roles and creating an environment within which the action may take place at its best is about engaging the objects in dialogue. The winner lets the costume design and stage design breathe life into the action, through letting them reveal and hint at underlying, hidden motives - and as such, contributing to drive the performance forward.

This year's best stage design/costume design award goes to Bård Lie Thorbjørnsen."

At the webpage of Trøndelag Theatre the following, among other things, is written about The Visit:

"The richest woman in the world, Claire Zachaniassen (Marianne Meløy) returns to her hometown, Güllen. It may be a haunting as much as a return. She has brought along a pack of servants, eunuchs, gangsters, men and ex-husbands. A black panther and a coffin are also brought, just in case.

What is leading the richest woman in the world, and with such an entourage, to the ugliest and poorest town? Are we talking about betrayal? Did anyone mention revenge? Are there witnesses?

Even the trains roar past Güllen without stopping, and leave the town as an outpost in every sense. Despite the hopelessness characterising the town the inhabitants have a strong belief in an honest day's work and some choir singing from time to time. Thus far."

Sources:

Trøndelag Theatre, www.trondelag-teater.no, 11.03.2014, http://trondelag-teater.no/forestillinger/besok-av-gammel-dame/

Import from the Scenekunst.no list of openings 12/12-2013

The Hedda Award, heddaprisen.no, 19.05.2014, http://www.heddaprisen.no/pub/heddaprisen/main/?aid=1215

The Hedda Award 2014, www.heddaprisen.no, 16.06.2014, http://www.heddaprisen.no/pub/heddaprisen/main/?aid=1266

• The Hedda Award 2014 - Production of the year