Beautiful

At the webpage of The Norwegian Theatre the following, among other things, is written about Beautiful:

"In Beautiful, produced in collaboration between The Norwegian Theatre and Teatret Vårt (Our Theatre) in Molde, Fosse lets the family, consisting of He, She and The Daughter, go on vacation to his mother, living by the fjord. This time they have decided to stay all summer. They meet his old Friend, who has not yet left the small society, he still lives with his mother. The two played together in a band when they were young, and the friend used to be the best guitar player, but we get the idea this is an artist who is now about to unravel. He, on the other hand, teaches music in town, but he has not fulfilled his ambitions, either. Now they look forward to refresh their friendship and to go boating, or so they say.

Idyll and break-up
The Daughter falls in love with a local boy, the two are flirting by a boathouse on the shore. The mother and the friend also meet there, while the husband sits at home playing the guitar. It is summer, and it is beautiful, but beneath the idyll is a mood of break-up and change, and there are tensions between the different characters that are not necessarily beautiful. The mother tries to keep things together, but not all is possible to control the way she wants. Suddenly She doesn't want to be there any more, the adults leave, but the daughter stays.

(...)

This is Kai Johnsen's tenth production of Fosse, nine of the ten have been Norwegian premieres. Of the twelve Norwegian Fosse premieres only two productions at The Norwegian Theatre and one at Rogaland Theatre have been made by other instructors, Someone is Going to Come in 1996 (Otto Homlung), A Summer's Day in 1999 (Gunnel Lindblom) and Winter in 2000 (Marit Grønhaug). This close and expansive collaboration between playwright and director is, at least in Norway, unique and illuminates many interesting questions. The position of new Norwegian drama in Norwegian theatre, to be seen outside of the Norwegian borders, the voice of the writer in the theatre, and so on. Whatever one's opinion on the near hegemonic Fosse tradition in Norway is, it has been very interesting to follow this riveting journey through seven good years, and Norwegian theatre must rejoice in this artists' meeting."

SOURCES:

Repertoire at The Norwegian Theatre 1913-2014. Transferred to Sceneweb 08.09.2015.

The Norwegian Theatre on Beautiful, www.detnorsketeatret.no, 09.11.2012, http://www.detnorsketeatret.no/index.php?option=com_play&view=play&playid=263

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award 2001, www.sceneweb.no, 08.11.2012, http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/23910/Heddaprisen_2001-2001