As Jo Strømgren’s first production with the Norwegian National Theatre came with an appointed dramaturge, he cunningly thought of exploiting this opportunity to get feedback on some potential writing. The production was to be devised so the dramaturge would have time for reading. After three nights of scribbling down imagined dialogues and situations for a play that would probably never see the day, he handed it over with a post-it note: “Not for this production.” But there was no feedback for a month. Maybe it was politeness, as when something is beyond bad it’s sometimes best to not mention it. But on the first rehearsal day, the actors had a fresh script in hand. Apparently, the post-it note had fallen off. As he didn’t want to loose face, he pretended this was the plan, despite expecting a catastrophe. However, the review in the biggest Norwegian newspaper surprisingly gave it a dice 6 and called it a genre of its own, highlighting a peculiar weirdness and a playful use of dialogues and situations.

From there on, Strømgren’s playwright commissions rocketed, covering currently about 40 plays for institutional theatres in Norway and abroad. His texts have been performed in several languages – English, German, Swedish, Finnish, Lithuanian, Russian, Danish, Spanish, Dutch, French, Polish – imposing both linguistic and cultural challenges. Commissions include amongst others Pushkin Drama Theatre in Moscow, Royal Danish Theatre, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Scottish Repertory Theatre, Jouzas Miltinis Theatre, Reykjavik City Theatre, and a long series of Norwegian and Swedish theatres.

Although Strømgren’s texts seem to work well in live performances, he believes they have close to no value as literature. As a consequence, he has refused any written publications of his plays. If you want to experience his texts, you need to see something live.