Boer Boerson Jr.

At the webpage of Trøndelag Theatre the following, among other things, is written about Boer Boerson Jr.:

"All in the world I have, believe me baby, Boer sings. He doesn't seem to oversell it. At the end of the play Boer is a millionaire and he has won the village's greatest girlfriend for himself. An oil company he is to start, too, probably not a bad idea…

Through luck and courage the controversial Boer Boerson Jr. climbs the social ladder in his home village Olderdalen, before he goes on to conquer Trondheim and Oslo. This endlessly popular musical is now performed for the third time at Trøndelag Theatre. At earlier occasions people have waited in sleeping bags outside of the theatre when the ticket sales have started. What is the thing with Boer?

The musical Boer Boerson Jr. is based on Johan Falkberget's novel by the same title. The novel, from 1920, was satire on the so-called working time in Norwegian history, the age when many stopped running farms and moved into the urban towns for work. Many also speculated in ship stocks, with great return prior to the market crash. The result was that some became millionaires overnight, and in the description of these characters we find Falkberget's pointed satire.

Like Boer Norway, too, has gotten 'all in the world'. From being a poor farming society without education Norway has, through oil, gas, weapons and the investments from the mentioned, developed into an upper class society. All seems to go our way. Like Boer's store, growing and growing, there seems to be no end to Norway's wealth.

When making Boer Boerson Jr. in 2013 we obviously wish to maintain the satire. But where the working time may be less topical, Boer's relationship to money, his class journey and not least luck may represent the room for new satire."

Espen Klouman Høiner won The Hedda Award 2013 in the best supporting actor category for his efforts in Boer Boerson Jr..

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason:

"The category of best supporting actor is wide. It may go to an actor who lights up a production through a small role. But there may also be a finely tuned divide between a leading role and a supporting role. The winner of the year has lightened up in small roles and played a fundamental role in a drama. He is artistic, and musical, in several meanings of the word. He doesn't give 'too' much, but exactly enough to create space for associations around a character. The award winner must be a gift to work with, for directors and actor colleagues, proven through Boer Boerson and Death of a Salesman both. This year's best supporting actor award goes to Espen Klouman Høiner."

SOURCES:

Trøndelag Theatre, trondelagteater.no, 21.05.2013, http://trondelagteater.no/forestillinger/2013/borborson/

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

Lillian Bikset, Moro for alle penga (literally: Fun for all the money), Dagbladet, March 16 2013:

"Erlend Samnøen has chosen warmth rather than satire in an enthusiastic interpretation of the Falkberget musical. (...) Boer Boerson Jr. is performed in a caricatured pre-war fairytale style, filled with pantomimic gestures and fun conceptions. The direction is characterised by richness in ideas, playfulness and a clear wish to entertain. Erlend Samnøen is generous with comedy, person characterisation, dramaturgy and not least choreography. (...) National romanticism (at times also humour at the cost of national romanticism) we also get through costumes and (both by Dagny Drage Kleiva). But despite of this one needs to look closely to see the societal perspective in the performance: That the story of Boer is also a story about Norway. The novel - from which the audience gets to hear excerpts from in this performance, performed by Kine Bendixen in a structuring, framing narrator role - was written long before the oil adventure, but still this story is a symbol-filled representation of the Norwegian class journey."