Suzanne Osten had recently undergone a heart operation, and her family tells about her passing to Aftonbladet.
She is the most wonderful person I have met in my entire life. That's what I want to say, says her partner Per Tjernberg to the newspaper.
Even at the age of 80, she was fully professionally active.
Last year, Suzanne Osten put up the idehistorical "Konspirationen" at Dramaten, and earlier this year, she told about the autobiographical comedy she was working on: "Love duet", where she played with the genius cult around Ingmar Bergman.
"A giant"
Maria Sid, theater manager at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm, describes her as "the eternal light in Theater Sweden".
She is the one who has taken us forward. For us, she is a giant and she has paved the way for so many, especially women.
Suzanne Osten began her career as a film and theater director in the 1960s and came to Stockholm's city theater in 1971. She founded Unga Klara in 1975 and developed an exploratory and groundbreaking theater that gave echoes even internationally. With "Medeas barn" she told about Lill-Jason and Lill-Medea and about how children were affected by divorce. "Babydrama" in 2006 started a whole new genre – infant theater.
When theater manager Benny Fredriksson in 2009 no longer wanted the city theater to finance Unga Klara, it was a hard blow. But Suzanne Osten came back and debuted, for example, at Dramaten in 2016.
"The child position"
Adult theater and baby drama – everything she did – came from what she called the child position in her life. Both her drama and films were characterized by the notion that children have the same right to art as adults, which led her to develop her own artistic practice.
Why shouldn't "Babydrama" be as interesting as "Peer Gynt", why shouldn't a children's play be equipped with the best actors? But unfortunately, we are so dependent on adults' anxiety. We who work with art for children constantly encounter an enormous fear, she said to TT after publishing her autobiography, "Who does she think she is, Suzanne Osten?"
Maria Sid emphasizes that Osten's legacy must be carried forward:
She has fought for children and young people, always. We must carry her message and talk about the power that children's and youth theater has – and how important it is in the world.
Erika Josefsson/TT
Sara Ullberg/TT
Facts: Suzanne Osten
TT
Born: 1944.
Upbringing: On Stora Essingen, together with her mother Gerd who was a film critic and whose mental health problems increased over the years.
Name: During her early years, she was named Carlota after a Spanish circus artist. In school, she took the name Suzanne to avoid being bullied. If someone called her Sussie, she refused to answer.
Background: Student theater in Lund, Fickteatern, Unga Klara, was also trained as a gestalt therapist.
Among her most notable films are "Skyddsängeln", "Flickan mamman och demonerna" and "Bröderna Mozart".
She also became an early successful debater from the theater scene, including with "Jösses flickor", which she wrote together with Margareta Garpe. With "Det allra viktigaste" (2002), she staged an eccentric queer manifesto.
