New premiere in Lund Cathedral!
The Lund Diocese's church play is again playing "The liberated compulsion - A play about Nathan Söderblom and peace".
It is appropriately called the summer church play. This year, 2025, marks 100 years since a groundbreaking peace meeting was arranged in Stockholm. Nathan Söderblom, archbishop and theologian, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930 for the magnificent ecumenical achievement that the meeting entailed.
The church play, which is being re-staged, had its premiere in Lund in 2024. During the anniversary year 2025, the play will not only be given in Lund Cathedral, but will also tour several locations in Sweden: Rättvik, Sigtuna, Stockholm and Gothenburg. In January, a performance took place at a peace meeting for young people in Rättvik.
– The interest in Nathan Söderblom is great because of the anniversary. The church play does not usually tour, so this arrangement is unique. We stage the same play two years in a row. The second year is usually a kind of deepening, because the drama lands deeper in us when we play it again, says the priest, liturgist and playwright Åsa Egnér, who together with Staffan Gerdmar and Lisa Mårtensson is in charge of directing.
In line with Nathan Söderblom's spirit of religious dialogue, the church play has two ordained liturgists who lead the prayers together, Åsa Egnér, a priest in the Church of Sweden, and Staffan Gerdmar, a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church.
As always, movements and tones are also an important part of the whole. The game is accompanied by newly written music by composer and church musician Johan-Magnus Sjöberg, who has composed a work for the Lund Diocese's church game for the first time.
– The music for solo, choir and organ bears the hallmark of Nathan Söderblom's contrasting essence. The repetitive and expressive theatre music forms a suggestive background that both lifts and interacts with the drama, summarizes Johan-Magnus Sjöberg.
Ensemble and music:
Oliver Lindman – playwright and actor plays Nathan Söderblom
Peter Broholm and Anna Palmqvist – actors from Teater Slangbellan
Helena Gerdmar – actress
Tobias Persson, Linnea Rydqvist and Vinga Magnusdotter – musical artists
Lisa Mårtensson – choreography and direction
Åsa Egnér and Staffan Gerdmar – direction and liturgy
The music was written by composer and church musician Johan-Magnus Sjöberg and is performed on organ by Johannes Andrée.
The event is free of charge.