UTVANDRARNA 1.0 NEW PREMIERE
30 oct
29 nov
A Swedish Epic in Scarves and Misery
DO YOU STILL DREAM OF LEAVING SWEDEN?
IN 2025, TURTEATERN STAGED 20 PERFORMANCES OF UTVANDRARNA 1.0, AN ADAPTATION OF VILHELM MOBERG’S CLASSIC.
MANY GOT TO EXPERIENCE THIS UNROMANTIC ANTI-HERO INTERPRETATION, BUT FAR FROM EVERYONE WHO WANTED TO SEE IT MANAGED TO GET A TICKET. THAT IS WHY WE ARE THROWING OPEN THE DOORS TO OUR SMÅLAND HOMESTEAD ONCE AGAIN. IN AUTUMN 2026, KAL-OSKA, KRISTINA AND THEIR POSSE ARE BACK IN KÄRRTORP TOWN!
It’s in Sweden’s cultural bloodstream to shout lines like “the whore gave me lice” or “it’s not just my fault we’re expecting, Kal Oska” from memory in terrible Småland dialect. And how many millennials haven’t been traumatised by their parents playing the soundtrack to Kristina från Duvemåla on repeat throughout their childhood? This autumn, the theatre goes all out on Sweden’s national epic, creating a more-is-more feast for all the senses: in true Turteatern fashion, audiences can expect flowing fountains of bodily fluids, headscarf inspiration for FW25, and scene changes faster and more frequent than underwear changes à la the 19th century.
We journey to the depths of human existence, the cradle of Luther in Småland. Life consists of farming and stone, reproduction and spirits. Pastor Brusander struggles to keep his congregation together, but times have changed. In farmhands’ rooms and cottages, weary eyes gaze through windows toward a promised land.
Turteatern’s Utvandrarna is not a romanticised tale of heroic lives. It is a dirty fever dream of priests, whores, clogs, and lice crossing an endless sea. Hopefully, we reach our destination in the end.
DAY AFTER DAY YOU GET TO SLEEP – AS LONG AS YOU WAKE UP AGAIN, AS LONG AS YOU PROMISE TO LOOK UP AGAIN – AS LONG AS YOU WAKE – AS LONG AS YOU DON’T DIE!
By: Vilhelm Moberg
Publisher: Colombine Teaterförlag
Adaptation & Direction: Marie Nikazm Bakken
Set, Costume & Makeup Design: Julia Herskovits
Music & Sound Design: Christoffer Karlsson
Lighting Design: Hannele Philipson
Cast: Paula Sundberg, Vilgot Paulsen, Thora Møller Jensen & Elle Kari Bergenrud
A Småland Voice: Henrik Johansson
Technical Coordinator: Josef Moberg
Technician: Walter Nilsson Berge
Producer: Siri Nyke
Head of Communications: Mandy Algeborg and Joella Kalala
Front-of-House & Audience Manager: Tina Tufan
Graphic Design: Mani / Mattias Broberg
Press Photography: Ekaterina Lukoshkova
Launch Photography: Sandra Karlung
Turteatern Management: Marie Nikazm Bakken & Siri Nyke
Funding: The Swedish Arts Council, City of Stockholm, Region Stockholm
Production Team 2025
Technicians: Walter Nilsson Berge, Viktor Öhlund*, Joel Dannerup
Costume Construction & Production: Sara Henriksson, Bitte Palm & Julia Herskovits
Construction & Carpentry: Paul Karlsson
Set Fabrication: Mårten Eriksson, Robert Wiberg, Josef Moberg, Walter Nilsson Berge, Viktor Öhlund & Julia Herskovits
Assistant Director: Alex Johansson**
Assistant Set Designer: Erik Lindholm Porne***
Front-of-House: Emilia Lambro, Mathilda Wallgren, Julius Bergman, Agnes Borg Hellström, Elin Journath, Alexander Öbom
Head of Communications & Launch Photography: Sandra Karlung
Special Thanks: Sofia Linde, Sofia Onno, Idah Sandersson & Östgötateatern
* Intern from Frans Schartau Business Institute – Theatre, Event and Stage Technology Programme
** Intern from Stockholm University – Theatre Studies
*** Intern from Stockholm University of the Arts – Bachelor’s Programme in Performing Arts, Specialisation in Set Design
Running time approximately 5 hours, including two intermissions
Photography: Ekaterina Lukoshkova
“Set and costumes are a fireworks display of creativity… a wonderful theatrical orgy in misery.”
– Svenska Dagbladet
“The actors Elle Kari Bergenrud, Thora Møller Jensen, Paula Sundberg and Vilgot Paulsen, together with director Marie Nikazm Bakken, have launched a full-scale assault on blue-and-yellow banality, creating something unique and absolutely worth seeing. They don’t just take the Lord’s name in vain — they burn the church down and piss on the ashes.”
– Expressen
“With the most imaginative theatrical tools, they excavate the primitive core of the story — sexual desire, violence, prejudice, and the reckoning with God.”
– SVT
“Vilhelm Moberg’s national epic is blown apart into a shimmering mosaic.”
“Julia Herskovits’ set and costume design pull no punches. She paints — quite literally, on curtains and scenery — a dream world that is beautiful and repellent at the very same time.”
– DN
“You need to see Marie Nikazm Bakken’s adaptation of OUR national epic, Utvandrarna 1.0. It’s a vast body of material, carefully stewarded. In the process, the text becomes poetry about what it means to be human — as it does when theatre is at its very best.”
– KULT Magasin
“Nearly five hours of inspired madness. A filthy, burlesque frenzy bursting with sheer joy in performance from start to finish.”
+++++
– Aftonbladet