Facts: “The centenarian”
The play “The Centenarian” premieres June 30 at Tjolöholm Castle’s summer theater.
The story is based on Jonas Jonasson’s debut book “The Centenarian Who Stepped Out the Window and Disappeared”.
It is already a best-selling book and a film, starring Robert Gustafsson. Now “The Centenarian Who Stepped Out the Window and Disappeared” will also be a play, premiered on June 30. Claes Malmberg is the latest to personify Allan Karlsson, a centenarian who slips from his own three-digit birthday party to embark on a month-long journey in Sweden.
– I usually do not think it’s fun to rehearse but this time it was very fun. I make it as a one-man show, it is a challenge in itself that is fun, to find each character and carve it out, says Claes Malmberg.
The scenography is also both humorous and inventive, according to Malmberg, who must learn when doors must be opened and drawers pulled out. Designing the book also means that they immerse themselves more in certain stories and iron out others.
– We choose our own path but everyone who has read the book will recognize themselves.
It’s about the elderly
It is when Allan Karlsson’s 100th birthday is to be celebrated that he slips from both his party and the old age home where he lives. During a month-long journey, details emerge from his incredible life – which also becomes a piece of contemporary history. He has, for example, had dinner with future President Truman, had a lift with former Prime Minister Churchill and has been hiking across the Himalayas for several months.
Claes Malmberg appreciates that it is about an older person. As a child, he used to ask his grandparents to tell him about their lives, and became fascinated that they had been as small as himself.
– The same thing is this, it is a person who has been of all ages and has a great story about it. So from a human perspective, you might get people thinking that “maybe we should talk a little bit with older people sometimes”. They may have something to add, says Malmberg pointedly.
He emphasizes that the story is above all humorous. At the same time, he believes that the present has to some extent influenced how it is now interpreted – for example, when Stalin is suddenly involved.
– The story has deepened without going deep. But it gets a different value when we’re in a war and Allan has to make an atomic bomb, for example.
Fun with theater again
For Claes Malmberg, it now feels natural to play all of the play’s roles – so much so that when he rehearsed this autumn’s performance of the comedian Lenny Bruce at Gothenburg City Theater, he wondered what all the actors did on stage.
He’s busy this fall. He also had it during the pandemic’s difficult years, but then mainly with film and TV recordings.
– But what’s nice is how much film and TV I do, it’s the theater I think is the most fun, so it feels fun to be able to do it again.