Retours (The returns / Tilbakekomstene) by Fredrik Brattberg (Norway)

French translation by Terje Sinding
English translation by Henning Hegland

A mother and father mourn the loss of their only son. The funeral is powerful and grand. Several hundred people have turned up to say their last farewell. After the funeral the parents struggle to find back to life, to everyday life. One day there is a knock on the door… and their son is back.

Working through repitition from tragedy to tragi-comedy, Fredrik Brattbergs masterpiece, which won him the prestigious Norwegian Ibsen Award, is a bold and surprising text which reveals to us the absurd twists and turns of our emotions and feelings.

Production history
Retours (The returns, original title Tilbakekomstene) was chosen for the Norwegian Playwriting Festival in 2011 and the international Festival of Contemporary Playwrights 2011 in Copenhagen. The original production was produced by the Norwegian National Theatre. The play has since been produced by the Indonesian theatre company Mainteater in Bandung and as a reading by American Scandinavian Theater Company in New York. Fredrik Brattberg received the prestigious Norwegian Ibsen Award for Tilbakekomstene in 2012.

Rights: www.colombine.se
Rights for the translations: Contact OIT for contact details

Read more about Fredrik Brattberg here.

Retours will be presented as a guest production by Compagnie Divine Comedie at Theatre Café Festival Oslo 2014. The production will be performed in a flat somewhere in Oslo. Festival pass holders will be given tickets for one of the performances. You will get information on where and when to meet up when you register on Friday. The performance will be in French with English subtitles.

Compagnie Divine Comedie (FR)
Compagnie Divine Comedie is a French theatre company lead by director Jean Christophe Blondel. They have produced shows like Solness, Constructeur by Henrik Ibsen, Cet Enfant by Joël Pommerat and La Princesse Mailene by Maeterlinck with a company of blind chinese actors. The company has worked extensively in both France and China.

Director: Jean-Christophe Blondel
With: Valérie Blanchon, Sylvain Levitte and Magne Håvard Brekke
Thanks to: Tormod Lindgren, Solveig Schwartz

Read more about the production here. (In French)

With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.