Whatever you do, do not confuse Jon Fosse with Bob Fosse. Whilst both artists are exceptional and boundary-pushing in their respective milieux, Jon Fosse is the Nobel-prize-winning Norwegian poet and theatre-maker whose latest production at the Coronet Theatre makes Ibsen feel like Rodgers & Hammerstein, whereas the other Fosse (now deceased) is, of course, all jazz hands, tipped hats, and sex-drenched show-stopping dance numbers. The living Fosse’s latest production is sumptuous and intriguing as well as meticulously executed and asks much of an exceptionally talented cast, which they deliver. Directed by Kjersti Horn, it is provocative art – haunting and beautiful – but not really a play as we commonly conceive it.
In Einkvan (“everyman”), we observe three members (or so it seems) of a dysfunctional family from multiple angles via two split screens (and surtitles in English, as the work is performed in its original Norwegian) and the action occurs live but blurred and muted underneath. I am reminded of the installations of Bill Viola and Sam Taylor-Johnson. The performances are hypnotic, as is the rhythm, with a menacing but not overbearing score by Erik Hedin. We see the face of the son from two angles, wet in a bathtub, on two screens. Except it is in fact the son and his doppelganger and there is no indication as to which one is the ‘real’ character. They ask each other questions about art and success. It feels like the sibling rivalry of two brothers for the attention of their parents, but also one person: until we realise it is two actors playing the same character. The same occurs for the father and the mother: six actors playing three characters who only interplay with their opposite “self”.
Meditations on loneliness and desperation are poetic and haunting and dramatised in that, with three characters of a family, none of them speak to each other, only to their ‘selves’. Even without careful attention to the text, the audience’s eyes flick across the captions on two different images, which play like subtly different billboards to a pleasingly disorientating effect, as we struggle as witnesses to make sense of it. There are hints of history and accumulated feelings of all the characters, but it would be a stretch to call any of it ‘back story’ in the literal sense of the phrase. What we get is a strong sense of melancholic resignation with absolutely no dramatic engagement between the characters of a nuclear family. It is both clever and frustrating.
As a study in how emotional isolation can be felt even in the most claustrophobic of settings and how so much of our struggle is with ourselves, Einkvan is intriguing. It is also relatively short and could occupy your sense of fascination in the way prolonged staring at a Rothko in the right lighting can feel transcendent, but this is not a production for punters looking for entertainment or ready plotting. For those lamenting the epidemic of literalism and over-exposition in theatre and film these days, Einkvan certainly provides an antidote: trusting its audience with such a light-touch that you could almost accuse it of dramatic neglect. You would need to be in the right frame of mind to consume this work, prepared to absorb it without looking for a ‘point’ and accept all that you’d expect a Norwegian-language acclaimed poet might bring to avant-garde experimental theatre with world-class actors (Vetle Bergen, Jon Bleiklie Devik, Preben Hodneland, Marianne Krogh, Hilde Olausson, Per Schanning). If you’re not put off by any of the preceding caveats, you may find yourself moved by something rare and beautiful; just absolutely do not expect jazz hands.
Review by Mary Beer
Einkvan is a beautiful hybrid of contemporary art and theatre, interlocking the intimacy of film with the immediacy of live theatre. While the bodies that move about in front of our eyes are indistinct, obscured behind a translucent screen, two cameras vividly capture every intimate moment.
In Norwegian (Nynorsk) with English surtitles.
Cast: Vetle Bergan, Jon Bleiklie Devik, Preben Hodneland, Marianne Krogh, Laila Goody, Per Schaanning
Text by Jon Fosse
Directed by Kjersti Horn
Set and Costume Design by Sven Haraldsson
Composition and Sound Design by Erik Hedin
Lighting Design by Oscar Udbye
Video Director: Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Dramaturg: Anna Albrigtsen
Camera Operators: Mads Sjøgård Pettersen & Borgar Skjelstad
JON FOSSE: EINKVAN
The Coronet Theatre
8 to 17 May 2025
