The Fussy Man

At the website of The National Theatre the following, among other things, is written about The Fussy Man:

"Mister Vielgeschrey is a fussy man who stresses and complains that his books are never in order. Indeed, he stresses and complains so much he is never able to do anything at all. For this reason, he won't hear of the possibility of his daughter Leonora marrying Leander, whom she loves. She is to be married to the future bookkeeper Peder, who can help his father-in-law in his work. But the competent maid Pernille doesn't accept that love is sacrificed in such a shameful way, and she makes a clever plan for Leonora to get her Leander. 

This is a way to shortly summarise the action of Ludvig Holberg's classic comedy The Fussy Man, which has entertained audiences since 1725. But to stage a Holberg comedy in 2016 may to some seem like a hopeless project. Where is the topicality and the comedy today's audience seeks? What do we laugh at in a world threatened by terrorism and xenophobia?

In The National Theatre's new production the acknowledged director Laurent Chétouane brings the play into 'the research laboratory' to make a wholly different performance filled with surprising comedy. With a star ensemble, director Chétouane wants to experiment with and cultivate the humour in the play, with his characteristic, exploring physical expression."

SOURCES:

Import from the Scenekunst.no list of openings 20.11.2015

The National Theatre, forest.nationaltheatret.no, 19.05.2016, http://forest.nationaltheatret.no/Productions/EventSeries/64628669-65de-4c4b-9571-851145f92205?event_id=d6b82a1e-cedb-4a8c-b0e3-0929971e655c

The National Theatre, www.nationaltheatret.no, 24.10.2016, http://www.nationaltheatret.no/no/program/arkiv/2016/Den+stundesl%C3%B8se.b7C_wRHK3e.ips

Lillian Bikset, Konsept: Kunstighet (literally: Concept: Artificiality), Dagbladet January 15:

"When The National Theatre now stages The Fussy Man, the constructed is not just embraced. It is cultivated. (...) That Chétouane enters a position of examining the text, should not surprise those who have seen his versions of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Ibsen's A Doll's House and Molière's The Miisanthrope at different The National Theatre venues. The Fussy Man seems far more sinewy, but this is connected to the expression and peculiarities of the material in itself. The production is a theatre project for the particularly interested, but even to the particularly interested it can try the patience. Not just because three and a half hours pass from the start until the end. Far more because it keeps a lethargically slow pace. In particular, the time before the interval can be perceived as exhaustingly slow. The spectator who is to gather anything from the performance needs to accept this. It will take whatever time it takes. Like Vielgeschrey (Henrik Rafaelsen) we need to learn not to stress. Only when one accepts the boredom, one is rewarded with comedy."