Elling

Elling is anxious. Always. He also suffers from neurotic tendencies, has bouts of dizziness and prefers not to go outdoors.

Kjell Barne is in his forties and a career virgin. He is a gentle giant, fiercely loyal and really, really wants to have sex.

These two middle-aged misfits have been given an ultimatum: make it work living together in a state-sponsored apartment in Oslo, or return to the institution where they met – this time for good. It’s an ultimatum that’s not so easy for the co-dependent pair; Kjell wants nothing more than to find a woman in the outside world, while budding poet Elling is afraid to leave the house.

Based on the novel by Norwegian author Ingvar Ambjørnsen, winner of the Brage Prize and the Telenor Culture Award, Elling offers both an insight into two spectacularly individual lives and some wonderfully bad poetry.

Skillfully adapted for the stage by English playwright Simon Bent, it is a sensitive, eccentric and unsentimental play that asks us not to feel pity for its protagonists, but to celebrate their differences.

Starring Mark Hadlow, Ross Gumbley, Bruce Phillips, Gregory Cooper and Luanne Gordon.
Directed by Lara Macgregor.