Spelet om Olav Mannslagar - Seljordspelet 2009* (The Play about Olav Mannslagar - Seljordspelet 2009)

Spelet om Olav Mannslagar - Seljordspelet 2009* (The Play about Olav Mannslagar - Seljordspelet 2009): A bloody, dramatical crime story from the 1600s, in a collaboration project between Grenland Friteater and Seljordspelet. The play was a historic re-enactment of the legend of Olav Garvik of Seljord, a man who became a murderer and an outlaw and who eventually was decapitated in 1686 outside of the church in Seljord. The legend is well documented, but it is also surrounded by myths, and several writers have written it down and spun stories around it. The first theatre performance based on it was performed at The Norwegian Theatre in 1931 under the title of "The Knives", in a play written by then theatre director Sigurd Eldegard.

Information

(Objekt ID 5551)
Object type Production
Premiere 2009
In collaboration with Grenland Friteater,
Based on Knivane by Sigurd Eldegard
Audience Adults, Youth
Language Norwegian and Norwegian Nynorsk
Keywords Physical theatre, Theatre, Historical play, Dance, Music, Song
Running period 2009  
Website Grenland Friteater

Requirements to venue

Blackout No
More

Olav was regarded as an honourable, even loved man in his time. But what makes a good person do such a crime? How about his wife, the man slaughterer’s wife, and the family? Grenland Friteater captured the conflict between the authorities’ idea of justice and the rural society’s idea of the same, the view of women and honour. The legend has survived as a folk tale, and several myths are attached to it – that the murder was a turn of destiny, because it was foreseen to happen, that one of the knives in question was a murderer’s knife with a curse resting upon it, and that the subterranean creatures, the trolls and dark elves, took part in having him kill a man – offering some kind of excuse for it?

Grenland Friteater utilised the expressions of dance, music and song, lightened in the dark August nights.

Source: Grenland Friteater, grenlandfriteater.com, 20.08.2010, http://www.grenlandfriteater.com/show_details.asp?ID=1395

Performance dates
2009Seljord Opening night