So, now I have also read the book ("Markens grøde" / "Maan siunaus") and seen the theatre piece made after the book. Very interensting combination. The book tells a story about Isak who moves in the middle of forest and starts to build a life there. Little by little he gets a wife, kids, cows, horses, houses... Isak is kind of symbol for every man. He comes from nowhere and starts to build a society. It could happen anywhere and any time. That's propably why Hamsun got a Nobel prize too. Story is so universal.

But to be honest it was kind of boring story too. How many pages can you use to describe potato growing, really? Quite many, obviously... But of course, I'm just one of those people who live in towns and are helpless in countryside. Hamsun didn't seem to have very much respect for people like me.

Well, anyway, I was very curious when I went to the theatre. First of all I can tell you that Oslo's Nationaltheatret is very beautiful and just because of the building it's worth for a visit. But the piece ”Markens grøde” was really incredible! Once again I remembered how much I love theatre! There are so many possibilites and in this theatre piece they had really used very many of them. Sebastian Hartmann had directed this piece. It was 3,5 hours long and I didn't understand almost anything (my norwegian is still so poor...) and still I didn't get bored even once! The story was almost the same as in the book so it was very easy for me to follow it but style they had put that story to the stage was really something. There were many interesting video-installations, stage turned around, rain was coming from the ceiling etc. They had also add there some kind of fairy whos function was to be kind of narrator.

My favourite part was the very begining when Isak came to the stage and he was there alone and everything around him was just white. Then all the sudden the earth (mould) dropped from the ceiling and suddenly the stage was full of earth and the story could begin.

In the end the play went crazy and it was kind of hard for me to understand everything. All the sudden Hamsun himself came to stage with nazi-flag. (Hamsun had nazi-symphaties when he was old and that's kind of hard thing in Norway, I think. I heard that they still don't have any streets named after him or statues or anything even when he really was a Noble prize winner.)

So, style of the play was very interesting and I'm really glad that I saw it. Once again I realised that you really don't have to understand the language if the play is good enough. Once again I realised that I really should go to theatre more often.