Folke Filbyter

Folke Filbyter – the origin of a statue, a square, and a galleria. But who was he? The national poet and Östergötland’s poetic chieftain Verner von Heidenstam wrote the novel about Filbyter in 1905. He is none other than the progenitor of the medieval Folkunga family and something of the last Swedish Viking.

In this grim and deeply tragic epic, a new era is breaking over Sweden and Östergötland. While Folke and his neighbors have close ties to Freja, Odin, and the other Norse gods, and plunder and loot in the old-fashioned way, a foreign religion is gaining a foothold around them: Christianity. In a number of fleshy, brutal, humorous, and deeply tragic scenes, a family history is told that begins in dirt and melancholy and ends in the deepest anguish.

Verner von Heidenstam was in his time Sweden’s most famous author and often wrote about Swedish history, romanticizing the nation’s origins. Today he is not forgotten, but hardly read by very many. Therefore, we are now reviving one of his most acclaimed novels in a magnificent, theatrical, and Viking-scented performance.

It is done in a wild mix of tragedy, puppet theater, and national romanticism. The director Erik Holmström has for ten years run the acclaimed Malmö Dockteater, which does puppet theater for adults. Here he now transfers his puppet theater world to the Main Stage, where actors and puppets share the roles.

Recommended age: 14+

Note: Depiction of sexual violence (against a puppet).