Lars Norén

Lars Göran Ingemar Norén (9 April 1944 – 26 January 2021) was a Swedish playwright, novelist and poet. He was a director at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, artistic director of Riksteatern 1999–2007, and artistic director of Folkteatern in Gothenburg 2009–2012. His dramatic work has been performed widely throughout Europe as well as in China and South America.

Norén's work spans across genres and styles, and explores existential and social themes. The dramatic works are driven by a poetic dialogue, with elements of absurdity and humour. Although they may appear traditional, they are formally experimental and modernist. Recurring motifs are the Holocaust, nightly quarrels in bourgeois families, alcoholism, and the socially marginalised.

The prefix Norén- is used figuratively in Swedish compound words, such as Norénjul ('Norén Christmas'). It refers to common themes in Lars Norén’s work, and evokes a sense of anxiety, a bleak domestic atmosphere, bitter conflict, excessive alcohol consumption, guilt, and shame. A 'Norén Christmas' is the antithesis of the idyllic 'Bergman Christmas' depicted in Fanny and Alexander.

Career Lars Norén's body of work is prodigious. He wrote and published well over 120 plays, seventeen volumes of poetry and fifteen volumes of prose including a five-volume diary made up of 6,300 pages. His dramatic work is written for the stage, television, and the radio.

Norén was among the contributors of Puss satirical magazine in late 1960s.

Theatre As early as the 1970s, Norén had begun exploring theatrical expression in TV plays such as Amala, Kamala (1971) and radio plays like Box Ett (1972). His first stage play was Fursteslickaren, staged at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 1973 amid scandal and controversy. He returned to the stage with Orestes (1979) and Modet att döda (1980).

The semi-autobiographical plays Natten är dagens mor and Kaos är granne med Gud, which premiered in 1982 and 1983 respectively and were broadcast as acclaimed television productions in 1984, marked the real beginning of Norén’s fame as a playwright. With the series known as Borgerliga kvartetter (including the chamber plays Höst och vinter, Bobby Fischer bor i Pasadena, and Sommar) Norén reached a wider audience.

Also notable is the controversial 7:3, written and performed in collaboration with a group of inmates, two of whom were active neo-Nazis and were allowed to express their views on stage as part of the performance. Further criticism was aimed at Norén and Riksteatern for their possible role in a chain of events that led to the Malexander murders. Two of the perpetrators had been granted temporary leave from their incarceration at Österåker Prison to participate in Norén's play. Journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink has chronicled the events in Smärtpunkten (2009), which was later adapted into the television series Smärtpunkten (2024) on SVT, with David Dencik portraying Norén. The years following the controversy are documented in first volume of Norén's diary, En dramatikers dagbok (2008).

During the 2000s, Norén undertook numerous directing assignments, staging both his own and other writers’ works, in Sweden and across Europe. From 1999 to 2007, he served as artistic director of Riks Drama at Riksteatern, and from July 2009 to November 2011, he was the artistic director of Folkteatern in Gothenburg. En dramatikers dagbok was selected the best Swedish novel of the 2000s in a 2025 survey of 101 authors, critics and scholars, published by Expressen.

Private life Lars Norén was married from 1970 to 1975 to Elisabet Mörk (born 1942) who worked as a script supervisor on various film productions from the 1960s. They had a daughter in 1971. In a relationship with Ann-Charlotte Bonner (born 1949), who also worked in film and television, he had a daughter in 1978. From 1993 to 2003, Norén was married to dramaturge and theatre scholar Charlott Neuhauser (born 1961). From 2007 to 2013, he was married to actress Annika Hallin (born 1968), with whom he had a daughter in 2009.

Lars Norén died on 26 January 2021, aged 76, following complications from COVID-19 during the pandemic in Sweden.

Awards

Norén was awarded the prestigious De Nios Stora Pris in 1980. In 2003, he received the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, often referred to as the 'little Nobel'.

1967 – Albert Bonniers stipendiefond för yngre och nyare författare 1969 – Carl Emil Englund-priset för Stupor 1971 – Aftonbladets litteraturpris 1974 – Zornpriset 1975 – TCO:s kulturpris 1978 – Gerard Bonniers lyrikpris 1980 – De Nios Stora Pris 1982 – Aniarapriset 1985 – Kellgrenpriset 1992 – Expressens teaterpris 1994 – Pilotpriset 2003 – Svenska Akademiens nordiska pris 2008 – Litteris et Artibus 2012 – Sveriges Radios Lyrikpris 2012 – Bellmanpriset 2015 – Per Ganneviks stipendium 2015 – Stockholms stads hederspris 2016 – Ferlinpriset 2017 – Selma Lagerlöfs litteraturpris 2017 – Litteraturpriset till Pär Lagerkvists minne

Works

Poetry Syrener, snö (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1963) De verbala resterna av en bildprakt som förgår (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1964) Inledning nr: 2 till SCHIZZ (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1965) Encyklopedi (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1966) Stupor. Nobody knows you when you're down and out (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1968) Revolver (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1969) Solitära dikter (Göteborg: Författarförlaget, 1972) Viltspeglar (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1972) Kung Mej och andra dikter (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1973) Dagliga och nattliga dikter (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1974) Dagbok: Augusti–Oktober (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1976) Nattarbete (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1976) Hans Bellmer (with Ragar von Holten, Norstedts, 1978) Order (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1978) Murlod (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1979) Den ofullbordade stjärnan (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1979) Hjärta i hjärta (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1980) Stoft (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2016) Avgrunden av ljus (collected poems 1962–2016, ed. Mikael van Reis, 2021)

Prose

Salome, Sfinxerna. Roman om en tatuerad flicka (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1968) Biskötarna (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1970) I den underjordiska himlen. Biskötarna II (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1970) En dramatikers dagbok 2000 – 2005 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2008) Filosofins natt (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2012) En dramatikers dagbok 2005 – 2012 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2013) Ingen (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2014) Fragment (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2015) En dramatikers dagbok 2013 – 2015 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2016) Efterlämnat (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2017) Fragment Il (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2017) En dramatikers dagbok 2015 – 2019 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2020) En dramatikers dagbok 2019 – 2020 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2022) Prosa 2020 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2022) En liten roman (Bokförlaget Faethon, 2024)

Plays (Published)

Tre skådespel (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1980) En fruktansvärd lycka (Promenad press, 1981) Två skådespel (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1983) Endagsvarelser (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1990) Och ge oss skuggorna (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1991) Tre borgerliga kvartetter (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1992) De döda pjäserna I-IV (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1995) Radiopjäser 1971–1995 (Sveriges Radio förlag, 1996) Personkrets 3:1 (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1998) Skuggpojkarna (Albert Bonniers förlag, 1999) Stilla vatten (Judiska Teatern, 2002) Dramer – Terminal & Samhälle (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2014) "De sista rummen", Grannar (Novellix, 2017) Olycka, illustrated by Agnes Jakobsson (Kaunitz-Olsson, 2022) Tre pjäser – Natten är dagens mor, Kaos är granne med Gud och Stillheten (Albert Bonniers förlag, 2024)

Television

Belgrove Hotel, Goodbye (Sveriges Television, 1970) En hungersaga (Sveriges Television, 1970) Amala Kamala (Sveriges Television, 1971) Modet att döda (Sveriges Television, 1980) München Athen (Sveriges Television, 1983) Natten är dagens mor (Sveriges Television, 1984) Kaos är granne med Gud (Sveriges Television, 1984) Hebriana (Sveriges Television, 1987) Komedianterna (Sveriges Television, 1987) Bobby Fischer bor i Pasadena (Sveriges Television, 1990) Sanning och konsekvens (Sveriges Television, 1991) Och ge oss skuggorna (Sveriges Television, 1993) Som löven i Vallombrosa (Sveriges Television, 1995) Ett sorts Hades (Sveriges Television, 1996) Personkrets 3:1 (Sveriges Television, 1998) Detaljer (Göta Film AB, 2003) Kyla (Sveriges Television, 2005)

Radio Plays

Box ett (Sveriges radio, 1972) Röster (Sveriges radio, 1973) Depressionen (Sveriges radio, 1979) Dräneringen (Sveriges radio, 1979) Akt utan nåd (Sveriges radio, 1980) När de brände fjärilar på lilla scen (Sveriges radio, 1983) Hämndaria (Sveriges radio,1987) Trio till världens ände (Sveriges radio,1995) Skuggor (Sveriges radio, 2011)