At first glance, the two musical artists are opposites. Valdemar Wahlbeck sits casually curled up in jeans and a T-shirt in the summer-empty production office in central Stockholm. Martin Stokke Mathiesen wears a white shirt and tie, with his legs neatly crossed.
We are very different! they exclaim into each other's mouths.
Still, it was a royal click when they met during the final audition for the musical "Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves."
When they got the lead roles as Rasmus and Benjamin, they celebrated their new friendship with sushi.
Intimate experience
Jonas Gardell's story of love and youthful searching, set amid the HIV epidemic of the eighties, was published as a novel trilogy in 2012. The same year it became an acclaimed television series. At the time, Valdemar and Martin were only nine and twelve years old, respectively.
Both think that the decade feels distant, but feel a responsibility to keep the fight for homosexual liberation alive in the present.
"I can't imagine what it was like back then. It's completely brutal because we live in such a terribly different reality," says Valdemar Wahlbeck.
You can't take any kind of freedom struggle for granted.
Now the story will be a musical, with newly written music by Fredrik Kempe and lyrics by Jonas Gardell.
Wahlbeck and Stokke Mathiesen see the production as a way to continue the fight for everyone's equal value, and believe that the stage format can create a more intimate relationship with the audience - and attract a new generation.
The music goes straight to the heart and acts as a bridge between the stage and the audience. It becomes a much closer experience, believes Martin Stokke Mathiesen.
Small-town dreamer
In the story, Rasmus leaves Värmland for Stockholm. He is soon drawn into Paul's decadent world (here played by Ola Salo). There he also meets Benjamin, who grew up among Jehovah's Witnesses and eventually dares to come out.
Both actors recognize themselves in their roles to some extent.
Rasmus and I are both from a small town and dreamers who long for something different, says Valdemar Wahlbeck, who has roots in Halmstad and last year made his breakthrough as Per Gessle in the film “Sommartider” (2024).
Martin Stokke Mathiesen also sees similarities with his role Benjamin:
I really recognize the family-oriented nature. Then again, I'm not a Witness, so it's a whole new world for me to explore.
Newly written musical by Jonas Gardell and Fredrik Kempe, based on Jonas Gardell's novel trilogy from 2012 and 2013.
Premiere: September 24, 2026 at Göta Lejon in Stockholm.
Starring: Ola Salo, Valdemar Wahlbeck, Martin Stokke Mathiesen, Vanna Rosenberg, Sara Jangfeldt, Lucas Krüger and others.
Director: Carl Johan Karlson, who has directed, among other things, the acclaimed production of Matthew Lopez's mammoth play "Inheritance" at the Dramaten, about the history and present of homosexual men.
Martin Stokke Mathiesen:
Age: 26 years old.
Lives: Stockholm.
Education: Ballet Academy in Gothenburg.
Valdemar Wahlbeck:
Age: 23 years.
Lives: Stockholm.
Education: The Academy of Music and Drama (HSM) in Gothenburg.
