Jernbanan

By Dag Thelander after Sara Lidman's novel suite with music by Per Wickström and direction by Bobo Lundén.

The year is 1894. Didrik Mårtensson from Lillvattnet sits in a solitary cell at Långholmen's fortress. For many years he was the hero of his hometown: director of commerce, chairman of the municipal assembly and leader of the construction of a railway through Norrland. Now all that is over.

In solitude, he thinks the whole story through again, puts himself on trial to prove his innocence. Around him stands the people who played decisive roles in his life. His wife Anna-Stava, the parents and siblings, the wonderful consul Lidstedt, the dangerous Hagar and all the others. Sometimes they obediently play the roles they have in Didrik's memory. Sometimes they come to comfort. More often to accuse.

In connection with Sara Lidman's 100th birthday in 2023, the Västerbottensteatern, in collaboration with Östfronten, is staging the author's masterpiece Jernbanan(parts 1-5). The book suite is inspired by both her own family's history and the history of Västerbotten and was praised and awarded when it was published between 1977 and 1985. The theater's artistic director Bobo Lundén directs again - after the success of "Musikanternas uttåg" - and the music-dramatic stage version is signed Dag Thelander and Per Wickström, the duo behind, among other things, the acclaimed shows "Trollkarlen från Chicago" and "Vansinnets historia".

This will be music-dramatic theater in a way that has not been done before at the Västerbottensteatern. Dag Thelander
has in a playful and inspiring way summarized Sara Lidman's five books into two and a half hours of musical theatre with newly written music by Per Wickström.

- More than half of the text is sung and woven together by seven singing and narrating actors in a way that I hope makes Sara smile in her heaven, says the show's director Bobo Lundén.