Thor

Excerpt from Tor Åge Bringsværd's text for the playbill, from April 1978:

"Thor has lost his hammer. He has searched everywhere, but it is and remains gone. He decides to ask Loki for advice, and Loki is willing to help him search for Mjölnir, if he can borrow Freyja's feather suit - and he can. Loki immediately flies to Jotunheim, where he finds out that the jötunn Trym has stolen Thor's hammer. To give the hammer back, Trym demands Freyja as his bride. When Freyja gets to hear this, she furiously denies, and the gods dress Thor in bridal robes, and send him instead. In Jotunheim, Trym sits eager and excited, waiting for his bride. What happens after this, you'll get to know when you see the performance."

Tor Åge Bringsværd also wrote the following, among other things, in the playbill:

"Odin was the chief of the gods - the most powerful of them all. They always got advice from him when they were in real trouble. He was wise, beautiful and very strong. Odin had many sons, and one of them was Thor (Thor with the hammer), who is one of the main characters in our play. Thor was second in power to Odin. He protected the humans against all dangers, and in particular against the evil jötnar. When the thunder rolled across the sky, Thor was riding his bucks, people thought. One of the days of our week is named from him: Thursday (Norwegian: torsdag)."

The role of Thor was played by Stein Grønli. 

Sceneweb refers to the other puppets registered from this production. These are Little Thor, Freyja and Gufse and Skrotolf (the latter two are registered together). 

SOURCES:

The Norwegian Touring Theatre's archive

Mona Wiig's private archive

Playbill from the production

Review in Aftenposten, written by Svein Johs. Ottesen and published April 17, 1978

Donated by: The Norwegian Touring Theatre. Mona Wiig.

Transported 21.01.2020.

The head of Thor was cut from Styrofoam and fortified with several layers of gauze fabric and wood glue. The last finish was a light colour. The hair was made from thin, black leather threads, as was the beard, which was shaped like a fan.

The upper body was made from foam rubber with a piece of thin wood at the top, to fasten the arms. They were shaped from foam rubber and drawn with fabrics in grey, black, and silver. The upper body was covered by the same fabrics as the arms. The hands were cut from thick leather. From the waist and down, the body consisted of wide, loosely hanging pieces of fabric, in the same colours as the upper body.

Thor was a rod puppet, and its head was as large as its upper body. The head was fastened to a round rod, prolonged to the puppet's chest area. This was the rod the puppeteer used in steering the puppet. The head could be turned to both sides, and the body could also be turned independently, without moving the head. To each of the hands, piano thread was fastened, so that hands and arms could be moved.

The size and weight of the puppet made up the greatest challenges for the puppeteer. The production was performed in school gymnasiums, and the puppets needed to be visible for the pupils in the audience. The puppet and the puppeteer moved around the whole gymnasium.

Stolen Thunder was the first puppetry production produced by The Norwegian Touring Theatre after the major success East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The target group was school children, and the production was performed in gymnasiums without additional lighting.

Svein Johs. Ottesen in Aftenposten wrote the following, among other things, in a review published April 17, 1978:  

"Mona Wiig has created the puppets and staged a production for The Norwegian Touring Theatre, far from what most people imagine puppetry is - where everything tends to take place inside of a box or behind a wall. Here, it is not hidden that people steer the puppets, and the whole auditorium is used. The puppets aren't small finger puppets, either. The giant Trym is larger than most of the gods, and the humans. An adult may think that such a thing would destroy the illusion for the audience of children. Rather the opposite happens. Children have never thought that puppets weren't puppets, and that puppets are steered by humans, well, that is what the child does on a daily basis."