Crystal
Road
About Crystal Road
A pleasure for all the senses
About Crystal road
Written by Katarina Frostenson
Directed by Pia Forsgren
A family gathers for Easter dinner. A loving reunion. Perhaps.
CRYSTAL ROAD is set in a living-room in an ordinary Swedish suburb. A suburb with a video shop, a pizza parlour serving ”home-cooked Swedish food”, homeless people and tenants, and where hicks are mixed with city slickers. Here, a family, mother, father, son and daughter, and an outsider, gather for an Easter dinner.
They meet, reminisce and relate, while the hare stews in the kitchen. Avocado recipes, keys, gym slippers… china statuettes, bread, photos… Mother dances… the daughter’s new life… dad without shoes… what has taken place between the son and the outsider?
It’s cruel, sad, life-affirming and funny. In the way family reunions usually are.
The production at the Jewish Theatre in 2002 was the first performance of CRYSTAL ROAD.
Participants in Crystal road
Written by Katarina Frostenson
Directed by Pia Forsgren
Rosa, the mother: Malin Ek
Karl, the father: Björn Granath
Stig, the son: Simon Norrthon
Klara, the daughter: Sofia Berg-Böhm
Freskia, the outsider: Charlotta Larsson
Choreography: Susanne Jaresand
Set: Pia Forsgren and Tomas Franck
Costumes: Mikael T Zielinski
Lighting: Kenneth Björk
Makeup: Horst Stadlinger
“A pleasure for all the senses”
Review from Aftonbladet,
October 13, 2002
“…A pleasure for all the senses. Pia Forsgren’s production of Katarina Frostenson’s Crystal Road is high and clear, a piece of sensual theatre with an excellent cast. Frostenson’s play is written with a weight that creates lightness. In a beautiful dance of words, bodies and facial expressions, the ensemble takes the audience on a journey to a faraway place nearby, where that which was once shared stemmed from the uniqueness of each and every one.”
By Claes Wahlin
“A selection of reviews”
“…Pia Forsgren’s production makes me think quality, “This is good.” …it’s Frostenson’s language, so full of contrasts, so rich with references, so corporeal and so fitting for a stage performance. And the actors, each and every one so clear in their physical expression, in their reactions to the others, a whole little mole family with eyes wide open. Pia Forsgren uses the space, constant but mobile, like a roundabout with sofas, to hide and highlight, to allow the actors to see and be seen, knowingly or unknowingly. Yes, it’s comical, sometimes very comical.”
Sara Granath,
Svenska Dagbladet
“…Bullseye by Frostenson at the Jewish Theatre. There is nothing more original or evocative on the Stockholm repertoire this spring.”
Leif Zern,
Dagens Nyheter
“…Crystal Road is a disharmonious Easter Oratorio for five soloists and an untuned piano, ingeniously performed.”
Nils Schwartz,
Expressen
“… a comeback indeed, for both Pia Forsgren and Katarina Frostenson… here it all falls into place, here she revels (Forsgren) in a play with stylistic levels and expressions that are virtually incompatible, that require a few scenes to settle, but eventually do – carried by five actors with a relish for acting… she (Frostenson) takes a seven-mile stride forward as a dramatist with Kristallvägen… the full evening performance, five parts, a family and familiar Swedish everyday life. And when Malin Ek as Rosa makes her entrance, she herself is a relic – a pale Strindbergian, ghostlike lady in silver-grey. And if the other actors sway a little at some point in the encounter between the realism and mannerism that generates the tension in the play, then Malin Ek sets the tone, three notches towards a heightening.”
Anneli Dufva,
Kulturnytt, Swedish Radio
“…Sensitive dramatisation of Crystal Road. With the appropriate richness of shades and acrobatics the actors convert Katarina Frostensons script into fascinating dramatic art.”
Roland Lysell,
Uppsala Nya Tidning