Me Near

The Hedda Jury gave the following reason for the award to Anne Krigsvoll:

"This year's best supporting actress is visible in every way - a colleague who in force of being exactly that, a colleague - contributes to the weight of the performance. In the role, and as a performer, she significantly influences the development of the main character. With fine details and timing her presence is strong, convincing, quiet and down to earth, in a performance circling existential themes such as the relationships between family, friends and partners. She belongs among the great performers in the Norwegian community of actors, regardless of role, and in this performance, she switches effortlessly between being a grown-up woman and a young man."

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

"She needs to change her life. She has thought about it for a long time. Get out of a relationship she's never felt fully settled in. Then, all of a sudden, her mother dies, and during the span of two days, everything changes. How could one singular event make you take control of all you've let slide for years?

The award-winning playwright Arne Lygre is known for his poetic and intimate texts about human relationships. As a resident playwright at The National Theatre, Lygre wrote Let You Be, the winner of The Hedda Award in the best text for the stage category in 2017.

The table is set for a daring fusion in the venue Amfiscenen, when director Sigrid Strøm Reibo and stage designer and costume designer Katrin Nottrodt now takes Me Near to the stage for the first time. For what happens when Lygre's subtle text meets the two acclaimed maximalists, known for their colourful, playful performances? You may remember the great success of As You Like It, performed at the main stage in 2017?

Me Near deals with meetings between longing people. In loneliness and quiet desperation, they seek for something else, something intangible. They cling to one another, while pushing each other away. It is about who we are for those we have always known, and who we could be for a stranger. About honesty and openness. What we say - and do not say. How we can have completely opposite identities in different constellations. About people who show up and disappear from our lives, or grab hold and put existence in play."

The Norwegian Ibsen Award's jury gave the following description of the play:

"Me Near is a linguistic examination of closeness and distance. The characters exist in an existential room, where emotions are tested, relations are put against each other, and decisions have to be made. This way, a complex and nuanced text about social and relational discomfort is created, about the fear of and the need to be alone. Lygre's use of language and form creates a paradoxical relationship to closeness. The distance that arises, shows how existential closeness is. Through Lygre's exploration of the theatre's language and its different perspectives, words are transformed into events. The characters place themselves in a finely tuned and precise way, through language and action, and through this, they challenge each other's balance points."

SOURCES:

The National Theatre, 24.11.2018, www.nationaltheatret.no, https://www.nationaltheatret.no/forestillinger/meg-nar/

The Hedda Award, www.heddaprisen.no, 16.10.19, https://www.heddaprisen.no/vinnere/2019

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award, www.sceneweb.no, 16.10.19, https://sceneweb.no/en/awarding/93019/The_Hedda_Award_2019-2019

The Hedda Award, www.heddaprisen.no, 16.10.19, https://www.heddaprisen.no/nominerte/2019

The municipality of Skien, press release 03.03.2020