Over open avgrunn* (Across the abyss)

At the webpage of The Norwegian Theatre the following, among other things, is written about Over open avgrunn* (Across the abyss):

"Was Tarjei Vesaas before his time as a playwright?
The poet Tarjei Vesaas had an unhappy love affair with the theatre. Ever since the 1920es he wanted to write for the stage, and he went to see theatre whenever he had the opportunity. Vesaas saw theatre all over the continent, and it inspired him. But it seems the love was never returned. That was, at least, how he saw it. His drama failed onstage. But was Vesaas to fault, or the theatre? The Norwegian Theatre is to give an answer to that when promoting the playwright Tarjei Vesaas in our jubilee year.

What cannot be expressed
The way it usually was with Vesaas, it is about an ordinary family. A grandmother, a mother, a father and two children try to reach each other, to be happy, to feel good. But the abyss between them is too vast and too deep. What can't be said is a repeated theme, the longing for a language with which one may reach one's fellow human being. Like with Fosse the drama is in the unsaid, and in the pauses. At the same time director Uwe Cramer's expression is filled with surrealist ideas, music and playing. There is a discomfort penetrating the meagre words, so that the people feel as if they are on the edge of an abyss, without realizing why. However much they try, they are unable to reach each other. Just like it was with Vesaas and the theatre. They really wanted to reach each other – but were unable to. Perhaps a German director, newly awoken to Vesaas, is the man to put them together...
Pointing towards Fosse
The Norwegian Theatre has read Vesaas' drama anew, and what strikes us, is how modern his dramas are. We are left with the feeling the theatre was not ready for Vesaas, rather than the other way around. The German instructor Uwe Cramer has used several short texts by Vesaas as his starting point. Some have been performed onstage as separate one-act plays. Cramer puts them together to let them illuminate each other. One may see that these theatre texts, when freed from naturalism, points forward, towards the absurdists and towards Jon Fosse."

Sources:

The Norwegian Theatre, 19.07.2013, http://www.detnorsketeatret.no/index.php?option=com_play&view=play&playid=385

The Hedda Award, heddaprisen.no, 10.06.2013, http://www.heddaprisen.no/pub/heddaprisen/main/?aid=1176

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

IdaLou Larsen, Ny teaterdebut for Vesaas (literally: New theatre debut for Vesaas),  idalou.no, 17.03.2013:
"As usual for Scene 3 the stage design is reduced to a minimum [...] Over open avgrunn* (Across the abyss) has become a thought-provoking description of existential and human issues. [...] In particular the description of the contrast between generations is successful, and as Anne Marie Blokhus delights us, with her childish impulsivity in every smile and even the smallest movement. Such an amazing effort the performance should be seen for her sake alone."

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