Authors: Jon Fosse
Fosse: Plays Six
JON FOSSE: PLAYS SIX
Jon Fosse
PLAYS SIX
Rambuku
Over There
These Eyes
Girl in Yellow Raincoat
Christmas Tree Song
Sea
Translated by May-Brit Akerholt
Freedom
Translated by Neil Howard
OBERON BOOKS
LONDON
This collection first published in 2014 by Oberon Books Ltd
521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH
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Rambuku
(
Rambuku
) © 2007 by Jon Fosse and Det Norske Samlaget.
Shadows
(
Skuggar
) © 2007 by Jon Fosse and Det Norske Samlaget.
Freedom
(
Fridom
) © 2011 by Jon Fosse and Det Norske Samlaget.
Over There
(
Der borte
) © 2011 by Jon Fosse and Det Norske Samlaget.
These Eyes
(
Dessa auga
) © 2009 by Jon Fosse and Det Norske Samlaget.
Girl in Yellow Raincoat
(
Jente i gul regnjakke
) © 2010 by Jon Fosse and Det Norske Samlaget.
Published by permission of Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, Reinbek bei Hamburg.
Copyright © Jon Fosse, 2014
Jon Fosse is hereby identified as author of these plays in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights.
All translations (except
Freedom
) © May-Brit Akerholt, 2014
Freedom
© Neil Howard, 2014
May-Brit Akerholt is hereby identified as translator of these plays in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988. The translator has asserted her moral rights. Neil Howard is hereby identified as translator of
Freedom
in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988. The translator has asserted his moral rights.
All rights whatsoever in these plays are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. in English should be made before commencement of rehearsal to Casarotto Ramsay Associates, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.
All rights whatsoever in these translations are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to the translator c/o Oberon Books. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the titles or the texts of the translations without the translator’s prior written consent.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-086-7
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78319-585-5
Cover design by James Illman
Printed and bound by Marston Book Services, Didcot.
Contents
Foreword
by Berit Gullberg
Translated by May-Brit Akerholt
T
wenty years ago, Jon Fosse was known as a poet and essayist in some well-read circles; his future success as a dramatist was at its very beginning. Maybe one could call him the reluctant playwright at the start of this period. His plays were being produced in Norway, although with a certain caution, later to move across the borders to insightful and quality-hungry theatres, most of them small, with underground status.
Directors were fascinated by the musical, stringent minimalism and the profundity yet apparent simpleness of his stories.
The Swedish author and critic Leif Zern, who has followed Fosse’s career from the beginning, should, eventually, write
The Luminous Darkness
, an enlightening book about Fosse which highlights the mysticism of the author’s steadily growing body of work. As the years have passed, agents, directors, translators and other fiery spirits have transferred the flaming torch between theatres in various countries.
From having been a modestly recognised author, Jon Fosse now has a weighty and luminous name as a dramatist across continents. Only India and Africa are left. His more than forty plays are translated to all the European languages as well as to Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. We know of at least 900 productions, and I believe that an unspecified number of performances take place without our knowledge and without payment of any copyright. At the beginning of the 2000s, a tsunami of Fosse plays premiered in Germany as well as France, where the wave is still rolling on. The great French director Claude Régy put Fosse on the world map with his outstanding and sensational production of
Someone Is Going to Come
in 1999 at Théâtre Nanterre in Paris. After that, a long line of Europe’s leading directors continued to stage a series of Jon Fosse’s plays. It was almost like a race. The first English production,
The Child
, took place at the Gate Theatre in London in 1998, directed by
Ramin Gray. The performance was met with mild and courteous interest. A few productions followed, among them
Nightsongs
directed by Katie Mitchell in David Harrower’s translation at the Royal Court, but that was a less successful event. It proved difficult to mount another attempt with any great success. Several other translators tried their talents on Fosse’s texts, among them Geoffrey Mutton and Ann Henning, and in USA, Sara Cameron Sunde. But the truly great artistic break-through in UK would not happen until May 2011, when Fosse finally managed to bring English critics as well as audiences enthusiastically into his world. I am referring to the recently tragically deceased French director Patrice Chéreau’s illuminating, vibrant staging of
I Am the Wind
at the Young Vic in London, in Simon Stephens’ version. It muted all resistance in England. Simon Stephens and Patrice Chéreau travelled to Jon Fosse in Bergen before the rehearsals. Simon told me later: ‘It was a special night. One of the most beautiful nights in my working life. It felt like a special honour to spend the evening with these two towers of European theatre.’
Welcome to Fosse’s illuminating darkness!
RAMBUKU
Characters
SHE
HE
RAMBUKU
Rambuku
premiered at Det Norske Teatret –
The Norwegian Theatre – 2 February 2006.
Director: Kai Johnsen
Designer: Kari Gravklev
Cast:
She: Ragnhild Hilt
He: Svein Erik Brodal
Rambuku: Morten Espeland
A living-room
An elderly woman in an overcoat and with a small bag over her shoulder
An elderly man in an overcoat
SHE
So
yes
yes here we are
quite short pause
and how often haven’t we been
standing here
quite short pause
like this
quite short pause
it is as if
we have always been here
quite short pause
just been here
quite short pause
year in and year out
have you and I
been here
quite short pause
always
short pause
and you don’t say anything
Why don’t you say something
quite short pause
can’t you say something
quite short pause
don’t just stand there
please
quite short pause
you just stand there
quite short pause
and look and look
yes
quite short pause
but don’t do it
don’t just stand there
and look and look
can’t you do something
quite short pause
say something
short pause
why don’t you say something
surely you can say something
talk to me
can’t you
quite short pause
you can
can’t you
quite short pause
say something then
short pause
oh well
just stand there
then
just stand there
quite short pause
yes
yes why don’t you
quite short pause
but it can’t just be
like this
quite short pause
no
no that’s not possible
Quite short pause
And why won’t you say anything
Long pause
But do you know
quite long pause
yes
yes that today’s the day
when you and I
are going to Rambuku
you know that
laughs briefly to herself
we’re going
all the way to Rambuku
quite short pause
you know that
don’t you
quite short pause
you know that
right
short pause
but why can’t you answer
say something
say
yes say if you know it
say if you know that today you and I
are going to Rambuku
quite short pause
but you don’t answer
don’t say anything
quite short pause
no matter what I say
you don’t answer
but it’s true
that today you and I are going
to Rambuku
quite short pause
for you know that far away somewhere
there is Rambuku
quite short pause
and there we shall live
there you and I
shall live now
Short pause
Yes we shall
Quite short pause
You and I
shall live there
quite short pause
yes
quite short pause
and do you know
what it’s like in Rambuku
no
I don’t suppose you do
short pause
in Rambuku there are angels
and trees
trees that are
almost
translucent
and they sway in the wind
quite short pause
and there are bright birds there too
yes
there in Rambuku
and many people I know
and many people you know
are already in Rambuku
quite short pause
they are there
quite short pause
yes all those I miss
are there
quite short pause
all those I haven’t seen
for a long time
they’re there
yes
yes and your friends too
they too are there
yes they’re there in Rambuku
you know that
quite short pause
and if you don’t know it
it doesn’t matter
yes not as long as
I know it
quite short pause
for Rambuku exists
whether you know about it
or not
I know that
yes
Short pause
And in Rambuku
there are
quite short pause
such big trees
and such big birds
laughs to herself
yes
yes big birds
quite short pause
no the birds are not as big as houses
but they’re still big