Faren satt på første benk og moren satt på annen og Knoll og Tott på galleri og lo som bare faen* (The father sat in the first row, the mother sat in the second, and The Katzenjammer Kids sat on the balcony and laughed like f**k)

Faren satt på første benk og moren satt på annen og Knoll og Tott på galleri og lo som bare faen* (The father sat in the first row, the mother sat in the second, and The Katzenjammer Kids sat on the balcony and laughed like f**k)(1975) by Perleporten Teatergruppe was, according to the company, about forming one's own opinions and thinking independently of other people's views.

In an interview written by journalist Arild Abrahamsen in Telemark Arbeiderblad (February 18 1977) – during one of the many tours Perleporten did with Knoll & Tott in Norway, Karl Hoff or Birgit Christensen said the following, among other things:

"The important thing about this play is to try to make young people think on their own and make their own choices, independently of what the parents and the society push them to. When one attempts to phrase this in an interview it sounds terribly square, but that can't be helped. We try to say something about how confidence in one self and the ability to think independently are stopped. On how one loses the ability to love. The play is a kind of dialogue between conservative attitudes to moral and gender roles, and what we try to establish as our own opinions."

Source:

The private archive of Perleporten Teatergruppe. Donated by Karl Hoff, 10.05.2009

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

Erik Pierstorff, 23.01.1976, Dagbladet [Oslo]:
"A high point in this performing game was, to many of us, the parody of the kind of theatre for children which understands the children and speaks directly to them: The theatre company 'Kinkliane Koff' from Horten took wonderful use of the old effect 'The play within the play'. But most of all the performance worked as a whole until the almost casual whispered end accord, given power by all the acting ahead of it."

Viggo, Gateavisa, Nr. 4-1975 [Oslo]:
"The piece is political theatre at its best. It describes the suppressing circle of the nuclear family in a way using all the communication opportunities within the form of theatre. The topics are treated without the intellectualisation characterising most of the left-wing political masturbators. And, as opposed to giving people readymade solutions, Perleporten's theatre orgasm ends in the following conclusion: Make up your own mind! Better it can't be said. See for yourself..."

Tone B. Jamholt, 25.03.1976, Arbeiderbladet [Oslo]:
"The municipality of Oslo invited me and many others to see the play in the Munch Museum sometime this winter. The secretariat of the boroughs had heard it hinted that this play should be shown, and made sure we had this experience. I think the elected of the boroughs agreed in unison that this was good. For Perleporten it must be a bittersweet pill to swallow that they don't get any support now. For the play was shockingly good. Rarely have I experienced any that has hit me at home like this. Any one - inthe role of raising a child - was stripped naked onstage, without feeling humiliated. This wasn't propaganda, but theatre. Nuances and human generosity were there room for. We got"God, fatherland and nuclear family" served on a plate. Only by taking theatre seriously as an expression can one manage to make such a piece. Perleporten calculates with having reached some 3000 persons, and they have surely reached some who aren't that easily pulled into the theatre salons."