6.30 pm: The Prodigal Father with Torbjørn Eriksen
7.30 pm: Dark Folk Tunes with Torbjørn Grindheim
Tonight’s programme
The Prodigal Father with Torbjørn Eriksen
Extracts from Arne Garborg’s novel The Prodigal Father (1899), performed by actor Torbjørn Berglund Eriksen, accompanied by recorded and live music.
“I had lived like the prodigal son and, like him, had fallen on hard times; but when, like him, I sought to return home, the Father was gone.”
The ageing Gunnar Hòve keeps a diary in an attempt to find coherence and meaning in his life. It proves more difficult than he had hoped. As a young man, he turned his back on the family farm and left for America. Now he has returned, but the family home has been sold and his father is gone.
What happens when the ideas we once had about life no longer hold true? What becomes important about the life we have lived? And what matters in the life that remains?
The Prodigal Father (1899) is Arne Garborg’s shortest and most beautiful novel: a poetic and musical text exploring life’s search for meaning. The audience is invited to experience an intimate and moving encounter with a man trying to find his roots in a time when old truths have been shattered by the new ideas and sciences of modernity. Gunnar searches for the Father, but instead finds himself through his encounter with his own brother.
“The Prodigal Father is to me the quintessence of all Bibles. It will stand in the future as one of those sacred books that have been preserved for us over thousands of years.” – Amalie Skram.
The text used in the performance has been modernised by Sigbjørn Reime.
Dark Folk Tunes with Torbjørn Grindheim
Welcome to a musical experience featuring stories and music performed by Torbjørn Grindheim. You will hear about mythical figures and tales from Norwegian legends and fairy tales.
This is from a time when almost everything was haunted. The mountains will echo and the skies will rumble. The clergy are quick to lay curses. Expect haunting melodies played on the goat horn and other Norwegian traditional instruments, as well as singing and guitar.
Torbjørn Grindheim lives on Kvitsøy and grew up in Stavanger. He has a long career as a performer. He began playing guitar and performing at an early age. As a teenager, he took part in children’s theatre and landed roles at Rogaland Theatre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he performed with various rock bands.
Torbjørn Grindheim has always had a particular fondness for Norwegian folk music and classical music, something reflected in his earlier projects. He has taken Norwegian folk music to audiences at home and abroad, touring the USA and Tokyo and performing at a festival in Estonia, among other engagements. He has also worked with Norway’s Cultural Schoolbag programme and Spaserstokken, and toured with Folkeakademiet. Torbjørn Grindheim also performs and teaches classical guitar.
The events have received support from the Fritt Ord Foundation and Rogaland County Council.
