The director Affe Ashkar has previously been awarded for "cutting down the thresholds to the theater". When he was asked to take on a classic at Uppsala City Theatre, he fell for "The Count of Monte Cristo", which he updates with scriptwriters Aleksi Swallow and Simon Wimmer, so that it takes place in a dystopian present day.
I thought directly "wow - when was it written!" It sounds like it was written today, the theme of revenge is timeless, says Affe Ashkar, who wants the audience to feel that the theater is "here and now" - not something you leave in the auditorium.
The play "Shunon from Monte Cristo" takes off in a 2025 shaken by violence and racism, where the main character Dante is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. It also depicts the rise of right-wing extremism over the next 15 years.
The Sweden Democrats started sneaking around in the early 90s, and look where they are today. The play shows that it will get worse. Segregation is also reflected, how society begins to divide into three different social zones, says Simon Wimmer.
Power Structure
Even Laura Fitinghoff's "The Children of Frostmofjället" and Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" get a modern makeover this spring. In the book "The Children from Frostmoplan", Mårten Sandén lets the children's arduous journey over the mountain to avoid the poorhouse become a journey in the city for siblings Yasmin, Omar, and Nahla.
The play "Wuthering, wuthering heights" at Göteborg City Theatre is now about a subculture that worships Emily Brontë's novel about forbidden love between upper-class girl Catherine and working-class boy Heathcliff. The audience gets to interact with the fictional characters, to get a glimpse of power in their own relationships. The classic effectively highlights how power structures can overlap, thinks the artistic leader of the theater group Poste Restante, Linn Hilda Lamberg.
None of the two main characters are uncomplicated, it's a pity for them but they are also terrible. The novel allows humans to be complicated, to both suffer and do harm. You also do harm because you have been harmed - so what makes a person brutal?
Grateful
Classics are grateful, according to Linn Hilda Lamberg, because they allow reinterpretations for constantly new messages.
People in all times have used these characters to tell what they want. It goes hand in hand with what we want to offer: take these two complicated people. See if you can see something about yourself in them.
"The Children from Frostmoplan" by Mårten Sandén. Siblings Yasmin, Omar, and Nahla set out on a dangerous journey from the suburbs to the city, after their mother is hospitalized. Their adult big brother Luis also seems to have gotten into trouble. Several nods to the original "The Children of Frostmofjället".
"Shunon from Montecristo", Uppsala City Theatre. Dante works in the harbor with smuggling but has tired of life outside the law. His dream of a law-abiding life is crushed when he is arrested for a crime he did not commit.
In prison, his desire for revenge and hatred grows so that it eventually threatens to change him completely. Premiere on March 8.
"Wuthering, wuthering heights", Göteborg City Theatre. By the theater group Poste Restante. The audience meets a subculture that lives their lives through Brontë's book, in an attempt to get as close to the characters as possible. The audience gets to try to get close to the fictional characters themselves. Premiere on January 23.
