Young Klara celebrates 50 years

It rushes under the feet. Cracking cardboard jokes spread out in nature -like patterns created to make exciting sounds as the audience crosses the floor. A bit away in the ongoing stage building sprouts large paper flowers. What is emerging in Young Klara’s huge black stage rooms is the scenography of the upcoming set of « Jangal », a mysterious fairy tale that will be explored by low -stage children this spring.

In the next stage room, the floor is sprinkled with colorful guitar plectrum. Here the teenage show « Pimple Pop » premiered last year, and various musical instruments are scattered in the room.

Den vindlande vandringen genom teaterns rum och hemliga korridorer anförs i hög fart av de konstnärliga ledarna Farnaz Arbabi och Gustav Deinoff, och slutar i ett litet förråd ovanför foajén. In a light chaos of paper and poster rolls (« no one has control over where old stuff is saved, here at the theater we live in the present ») find the duo so a book. It documents « Lammungarnas Fest » from 2014, the last set that the theater’s founder Suzanne Osten directed before handing over her 40-year leadership to them. One of the spreads forms a meeting between two portrait photos: on one side the cheese and on the other deinoff and arbabi.

I myself remember the mood of the press conference when the new leadership was to be presented. How it felt like all of us who arrived to monitor the news as well as nodded contentedly over who turned out to sit there on stage. Both familiar faces from the world of theater and young Klara.

– We were so nervous, laughs Farnaz Arbabi. In the beginning we tried to be so incredibly good.

– But Suzanne was very good at handing over, says Gustav Deinoff. She just said « Now you are running this! » And then she started doing something else. Then she was always there as a support if we shouted. Nu kan vi inte ringa henne längre.

Then Suzanne’s cheese Went away last fall, 49 years after the founding of young Klara, the missing is in the air.

– We have been here for ten years, we know we can handle the assignment. But it is clear that her passing raises the feeling that we are doing this without her. And give birth to thoughts of wanting to look back and forward, says Gustav Deinoff.

This is what our theater discussion revolves around – not only that living in the present, but also a look back and one forward. Several current historical schedules overlap: Young Klara celebrates their 50th anniversary this year, the « new » artistic leadership has been around for ten years, the theater has been named the national stage for children and young people for seven years. What is left from before, and what comes then?

That stock The inheritance of Suzanne Osten is not least about the constant children’s perspective.

– The children’s perspective is a strong core, while what is around is changing and displaced. The discourses wave, our respective artistry develops, society looks different, as are the conditions of the theater, says Gustav Deinoff.

For example, when young Klara was spin -off from Stockholm City Theater in 2010, it became more important to strengthen the children’s perspective towards politics.

– In the past, Suzanne Osten had made sets even for an adult or undefined age group, although there was always a children’s perspective. But around the separation from the Stadsteatern, since young Klara was also threatened by closure, the stated wording of a young target group arose, says Arbabi.

It is also the mission From the government, she explains, to be a national scene for an audience of 0-18 years. But young Klara also has an adult audience, who not only comes to the theater to make children company.

– It is a little unusual for us as a children’s and youth theater to have such a large proportion of adults who come and watch, and are interested in what kind of art we create, says Arbabi.

« Our basic philosophy is that children and young people are just as competent as adults to take in – and also deserve to have – full -fledged art experiences »

What is it?

– We do not simplify the art because it is aimed at children and young people. It is no longer understandable, no less lavish or artistic. Our basic philosophy is that children and young people are just as competent as adults to take in – and also deserve to have – full -fledged art experiences. So we create that, says Arbabi.

As a children’s and youth scene, young people have close contact with schools, involve teachers in their processes, and recently wrote an open letter to the country’s principals about children’s right to culture. I ask what that insight gives them to the picture right now.

– The tendency is that it has become more difficult for schools to go to the theater. Both to come here to us and to buy performances that come to them. It may be due to less resources, says Deinoff.

– The staff does not always dare to go away if they are too few. The children’s groups are larger, and the number of children with special needs has increased. We are struggling with that to get the audience to come here to a greater extent. In addition to outreach activities, we want to introduce the theater as a place for the younger audience. If we see that some schools repeatedly have to say no, we try to solve it.

« Young Klara makes plays that sometimes take up difficult and complex topics. Adults can be afraid of it, just like on Suzanne Osten’s time with plays such as ‘Medea’s children’ or ‘the girl, the mother and the garbage' »

Deinoff argues about how movements in society often reflect in the adult world’s view of children and children’s culture.

– We see an anxiety right now. Young Klara makes plays that sometimes take up difficult and complex subjects. Adults can be afraid of it, just like in Suzanne Osten’s time with plays like « Medea’s children » or « The Girl, the Mother and the Garbage ». Schools may want to take the safe before the uncertain.

According to Arbabi, the strengthened parenting power at school is one aspect.

– They don’t want angry emails from parents, they don’t have time with that either. It is a double exposure in society now around the view of children: on the one hand the idea that children should be protected from difficult things or difficult subjects, on the other hand requirements for longer punishment and harsher hold of children.

Your theater is affected by the same currents in the view of children that you also work to portray?

– Yes. Which we in turn try to influence, says Arbabi. By participating in debates and writing articles.

– And of course through our sets, Deinoff fills in. What is important to talk about right now? It can be specific substances or a general movement. This is how we manage Young Klara’s inheritance, we must do brave performing arts that reflect the children’s reality.

If you look for the future of Swedish theater for children and young people, what do you see for challenges and visions?

– There is a genre freedom in children’s and youth theater, it can turn between drama, comedy, clown, commedia dell’arte, dance … free form creates freer art and freer artists. Heavy subjects do not have to mean social realism, it can attract the fantastic, elevated and theatrical. It is in theater for children and young people that it happens, and here the exciting artwork continues to emerge, says Arbabi.

– One challenge is that children’s culture is not most important in practice, not even in Sweden, which is a pioneer in children’s and youth theater. When it blows neat, it is the one with the lowest status. Young Klara has a unique position with our national mission and therefore our role must also be to push for other theaters, points out.

What happens on your scene ahead?

– One thing that occupies us is hope versus the downfall. To discuss with the young audience about how we process to live in something that can be perceived as dystopian, and where the hope for the future really exists, says Deinoff.

Maybe any visitor can find it in a floral or rocky scenography? The title of the book on Young Klara’s practical work, which many years of employee Erik Uddenberg wrote in 2022, is called « utopian moments » after all.

Also read:

« Today’s young people require challenging stories »

« Suzanne Osten was more important than both Bergman and Norén »