Scenography and costume design for

Dissekering av ett snöfall

By Sara Stridsberg

Director: Tatu Hämäläinen

Light design: Chrisander Brun

Sound design/composition: Franz Edvard Cedrins

Make up: Thea Kristensen Holmberg

Produced by The Royal Dramatic
Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden

Dissection of a Snowfall is a newly written play by Sara Stridsberg, a leading Swedish writer and playwright, for the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

Stridsberg´s characters stems from the Swedish royal family, the plot evolves around Queen Christina (1626 – 1689) and her gain and loss of the crown and power in the kingdom of Sweden.

The story of the play tosses between historical events, fictional love stories with great passion and tragic events of lost souls. 

In 1633 Christina was to take over the throne after her father, only six years old, when her father, King Gustav II Adolf, died early in battle.  In 1654 she abdicated and converted to Catholicism, left Sweden and travelled to Rome. 

In a Swedish historical context she has become an iconic symbol of feminism and the individuals struggle against the system of conventions and traditions.

In our version of the play the queen and our lead actress merges together: the divas self-indulgence at the theatre, and the decadence of the queen in the play. 

She is searching for her identity, her role in the world. She is revolting against all conventions of gender, political views, religion and philosophical questions - regardless of her surroundings.

When we enter the story of the play, the crowning of the queen is about to happen, but Christina/the lead actress is delaying the point of climax. 

She is postponing and sabotaging it, until the moment where she let´s herself convince, only to in the next moment abdicate and leave the country/the stage in ruins.

The surrounding of our stage design is simple; the theatre, with all its technicalities, and the actors and the stage technicians are present, but no one knows what is going on. They are all anticipating the big event and they come to a standstill. All is depending on the queen, the one individual that can lead the way forward, for the kingdom/the play.

In the end the party starts, illustrated by a giant inflatable structure, an obstacle course with slides and bridges. It fills the stage entirely. The queen/the lead actress feels completely suffocated, switches the gala off and leaves the stage.

We wanted to find simple tools of extravaganza, of luxury, of grandeur, but with a switch; a dirty, sweaty, cheap side. The inflatable obstacle course served us well.