CHRISTOPHOROS

Tore Ørjasæter (1886-1968) was a Norwegian writer from the village Skjåk, he was also Lene Therese Teigen's grand uncle.

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CHRISTOPHOROS

In 2005 Lene Therese Teigen directed a staged reading of Ørjasæter's most renowned play "Christophoros" in Øyer church. There were local amateurs, as well as fiddler Mari Skjeie Ljones from Lom who played "Kristen Fangje" and a number of professionals actors.

The following day, Teigen lectured on Ørjasæter as a playwright, "Dramatikeren Tore Ørjasæter - the innovative will" in a seminar open to the public, but also with a number of literary scholars, etc. present. She walked the audience through his entire dramatic career and but it into theatre historical context.

 

In 2011, she also gave a lecture in Ørjasæter's hometown, with actor Endre Skjåk, who did a reading of extracts from Ørjasæter's plays together with Teigen.

 

PLAYWRIGHT AND POET

Ørjasæter wrote four plays, and it lead to several professional versions at Det Norske Teatret, a theatre close to him as it is the only theatre with nynorsk as main language. 

 

Jo Gjende, 1917 (staged at Det Norske Teatret i 1924 and 1941 and at Den Nationale Scene in 1952)

Anne på Torp (Det Norske Teatret 1933)

Christophoros (Det Norske Teatret i 1948 and 1959)

Den Lange Bryllaupsreisa (Det Norske Teatret 1950)

Brudekrona – for amateur theatre 1956 (?)

 

It is said that Ørjasæter knew "The Ghost Sonata" by heart, as a fascination of August Strindberg's later plays, the symbolic drama - and marked (amongst the latest plays of Ibsen) the modern breakthrough in the theater, where realism no longer was the artistic aim. 

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Tore Ørjasæter writes in the literary journal Vinduet in 1949:

"According to my knowledge and judgment, there is no one who has been as inspiring in modern drama as August Strindberg. - Not least in his unnatural plays such as The Chost sonata and Advent. And today he himself is more modern than ever before.”

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