Dragen

Gro Dahle's DRAGEN ("The Dragon") is about the little girl Lilli who lives at home with her mother. The twist: Her mother is a dragon. Like several of Dahle's books, she manages to address taboo topics about children who live with psychological violence, in a heartbreaking but at the same time so admirable way that I am at a loss for words. I choose to believe that Dahle's work can actually help, and IS helping someone in desperate need. I can honestly think of no better example of how to create truly VITAL art for children than what Gro Dahle does.

So there I was, being tasked to create music for a vitally important production. But the thing is, when you work with material as strong as this, the inspiration comes almost effortlessly. The "Dragon theme", which is also Lilli's theme, crept into my head on the first reading of the script, and refused to let go. The fact that Lilli sees her mother as a dragon is actually a kind of "coping mechanism". Therefore, the music also had to support Lilli's projection of reality – that she lives inside a kind of fantasy world. This is Lilli's everyday life, where she watches out for the Dragon, while sneaking around the house, trying not to make a sound. A life that she has in many ways got used to – on the verge of forming a kind of lightness, a naturalness about it all. Which, of course, is even more heartbreaking.

DRAGEN was produced by Tigerstadsteatret in collaboration with Turnéteatret in Trøndelag, dramatized and directed by the continuously fantabulous Hilde Brinchmann. 🙌🎭 It has received very high praise and top reviews from some of Norway's most prominent cultural journalists.