Jon Fosse: Einkvan

08–17 May 2025

(This is a past event and is no longer running)

Directed by Kjersti Horn

★★★★★
“It’s a show that will continue to haunt you, in your own company, or with others… Bring a friend.” – thespyinthestalls

★★★★
LondonTheatre1

★★★★
CityAM

★★★★
theartsdesk

Visually extraordinary and emotionally charged: Einkvan (Everyman) is a breathtaking new play from 2023 Nobel Prize-winner Jon Fosse, directed by Det Norske Teatret Artistic Director Kjersti Horn.

“Can’t you hear that I’m talking to you?”

A father, a mother, and a grown son make desperate attempts at connection. The son wants nothing to do with the parents. They look for him but he does not want to be found. Their struggles to communicate are intercepted by the echoes of people who look just like them – their mysterious doppelgängers.

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.

Fosse’s poetic text, and Horn’s ambitious directorial vision bring us to the very heart of loneliness and the powerlessness of not being able to reach those we are closest to.

“A dark, erotic and unforgettable production.” – Aftenposten

“There’s a tension that resonates between the lines. An intriguing ambiguity between what is said and what is left unsaid.” – Vårt Land

A strong directorial vision that points towards a new and exciting chapter in the history of the Norwegian Theatre, Einkvan had its world premiere in Oslo on April 25, 2024.

In Norwegian (Nynorsk) with English surtitles.

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

Cast
Vetle Bergan, Jon Bleiklie Devik, Preben Hodneland, Marianne Krogh, Laila Goody, Per Schaanning

Camera Operators
Mads Sjøgård Pettersen & Borgar Skjelstad

The role of Second Older Woman was played by Hilde Olausson for the opening night of Einkvan on 8 May.

Post-Show Q&As

We will be hosting a post-show Q&A with Kjersti Horn, Artistic Director of Det Norske Teatret, on Mon 12 May.

There will also be a Q&A with members of the Einkvan company after the performance on Fri 16 May.

The Q&As will be free for ticket holders.

Genre:

Theatre

Performances:

Thu 08 – Sat 17 May; 7:30pm
Sat 10 & Wed 14 May; 2:30pm

Auditorium

Running Time:

Approx 65 mins with no interval

Age Guidance:

14+

Content Advisory:

Please note that this performance contains a scene of violence that some may find disturbing.

NO LATECOMERS ALLOWED

Tickets:

£50, £40, £30. £20 standard

Concessions
(please note that we do not offer concessions based on age)

Group Offer

More info

Genre:

Theatre

Performances:

Thu 08 – Sat 17 May; 7:30pm
Sat 10 & Wed 14 May; 2:30pm

Auditorium

Running Time:

Approx 65 mins with no interval

Age Guidance:

14+

Content Advisory:

Please note that this performance contains a scene of violence that some may find disturbing.

NO LATECOMERS ALLOWED

Tickets:

£50, £40, £30. £20 standard

Concessions
(please note that we do not offer concessions based on age)

Group Offer

More info

Additional Information

Kjersti Horn is a Norwegian theater director, educated at the Dramatiska Institute in Stockholm. Her interpretation of Hamlet (Rogaland Teater 2014) received the Hedda Prize in 2015.

Horn is concerned with outsiders, something she often features in her work, whether staging classics or newly written plays.

She has been behind a long series of critically acclaimed and award-nominated performances. For her direction of Styrtet engel (Nationaltheatret 2013) she was nominated for the Critics’ Prize , and for the previously mentioned Hamlet, as well as Kaos er neighbor til Gud (Nationaltheatret 2016), Valden’s story (Det Norske Teatret 2017), Heritage and environment (Den Nationale Scene 2018) and Scenes from a marriage (Rogaland Teater 2019) she received Hedda nominations in the category for best direction.

Hers I was Fritz Moen (Riksteatret in collaboration with Teater Manu 2012), Natten er dagens mor (Nationaltheatret in collaboration with Riksteatret 2015), Burnt (Den Nationale Scene 2015), En folkefiende (Rogaland Teater 2017) and Arv og miljø were also all nominated for the Hedda prize.

From 2015 to 2019, Horn was resident director at the National Theatre, and since 2020 she has been resident director at Det Norske Teatret. From 2025, she will take over as Artistic Director at the same location.

Jon Fosse was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway and is the recipient of countless prestigious prizes, both in his native Norway and abroad. Since his 1983 fiction debut, Raudt, svart [Red, Black], Fosse has written prose, poetry, essays, short stories, children’s books and over forty plays. In 2023, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable“.