Both plays deal with the suppression of women and how women struggle to overcome the confines of traditional roles. “Although these writers are a hundred years apart, they both deal with the topic of women’s emancipation,” said Norwegian Ambassador Wegger Strømmen in his opening remarks. A Doll’s House shocked theatergoers in the late 19th century with its depiction of a woman, Nora, leaving her husband, Torvald. Seagull Eaters, set in Bergen during World War II, depicts a young woman resisting society’s expectations that she become a housewife, and earned the Prix Italia, an international theater award, in 1983.
Gunnar Germundson, President of the Writer’s Guild of Norway, commented on the importance of Ibsen’s work for contemporary Norwegian writers:
“Henrik Ibsen has such a prominent place in Norwegian drama, and he stands out as the tallest tree in the forest. Of course, with a tall tree like this there are basically two things we can do; one is to climb on it, the other is to piss on it.”
Following an introduction by Leslie Hyde, Executive Director of the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, Hyde and actors Jenna Sokolowski and Kevin Reese read scenes from both plays.
Co-sponsored by the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, the event was part of “Norway Comes to Washington,” an ongoing cultural festival sponsored in part by the Norwegian Embassy.