THE TIN DRUM Will Be Performed at National Theatret in September

The year is 1927 in interwar Europe, and three-year-old Oskar gets a tin drum as a birthday present. The same day he decides to stop growing. He has already seen through the world as something he does not want to be a part of - it is brutal, hypocritical and unappealing. The election becomes a life of protest. To survive, he takes his place as an outsider. A drumming observer with a piercing scream that makes glass shatter.

The novel classic Blikktrommen (1959) by Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass is considered a defining work in European literary history and the genre of magical realism. Through little Oscar's story about growing up in Grass' own hometown of Danzig, we are also introduced to the story of a country and a time strongly marked by the dehumanization and crises of the war. All the time with a playful and surrealistic approach to the grotesque and at times shocking realism.

It is the award-winning director Kjersti Horn who takes the big story to the stage. With her, she has an artistic team she has created several critically acclaimed performances with, such as The Night is Today's Mother (2015), Richard III (2016) and Chaos is Neighbor to God (2017). With actor Olav Waastad alone on stage as Oskar, in Sven Haraldsson's expressive and magnificent scenography, we can expect a performance that challenges the format of the intimate Malersalen.

The eye drum is about standing outside and looking in, without becoming a victim. Oskar sees the world from below with a full-grown gaze, and undresses the people in it. It's hard hitting and uncomfortable, and at times also comical. Because can we trust Oskar to tell the truth?

The tin drum is a major work in German literature and made Günter Grass a world-famous author. The novel was filmed in 1979 by Volker Schlöndorff with David Bennent in the lead role. The film was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Blikktrommen premieres at the National Theater in Oslo in the autumn of 2021.

Learn more and purchase tickets at https://www.nationaltheatret.no/forestillinger/blikktrommen/.