Premiere: 06.03.2026
Duration: Approx 110’ in one act
Language: Swedish
Translation: English
Company: Backa Teater
Venue: Backa Teater
Address: Lärdomsgatan 1C, 414 56, Gothenburg
By: George Orwell
Dramatised and Directed by: Monica Wilderoth
Cast: Oliver Andersson, Adel Darwish, Eleftheria Gerofoka, Gunilla Johansson Gyllenspetz, Gunnar Klint, Emelie Strömberg, Agnes Hargne Wallander, Kjell Wilhelmsen
Set and Costume Design: Josefin Hinders
Hair and Makeup: Josefin Ekerås
Composition and Sound Design: Jonas Redig
Lighting Design: Bella Oldenqvist
Video Design: William Sjöberg
Dramaturg: Kristina Ros
Assistant Director: Felicia Stjärnsand
Producer: Emelie Wessberg
Image: Lovisa Sköld

Synopsis: In Oceania, reality is controlled from above. Everything you do is monitored—every step, every word, every glance. Even your thoughts can be a crime. Language is reduced, truth is distorted, and history is erased. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” are the slogans of power, carved into the consciousness of every citizen.

But in the cracks, something forbidden is born: a free thought and a love that must not exist. A “we” that becomes an act of rebellion. How far can courage and resistance reach when the truth burns within the body but cannot be spoken aloud? When people have already capitulated to a repressive and totalitarian system?

Backa Teater brings new life to George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984—a powerful and unsettling story of power, control, and the fragility of human relationships. A dystopia that feels disturbingly close, where the struggle to feel, remember, and dream becomes a matter of life and death.

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Premiere: 30.08.2024, at Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival
Second premiere: 26.03.2025, at Backa Teater
Duration: Approx 60’ in one act
Language: English, Greek and Swedish
Translation: English
Company: A co-production between Backa teater and Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival. A part of PROSPERO-NEW – European Platform for the Promotion of Emerging Artists.
Venue: Gothenburg City Theatre
Address: Götaplatsen 4, 412 56, Gothenburg
Idea and Initiator: Eleftheria Gerofoka
Written and Directed by: Eleftheria Gerofoka, Rasmus Lindgren
Cast: Eleftheria Gerofoka, Vasiliki “Kiki” Gerofoka
Set and Lighting Design: Bella Oldenqvist
Sound Design: Jonas Redig
Dramatic Text: Christina Ouzounidis
Artistic Mentor: Lola Arias
Dramaturge: Kristina Ros
Movement Instructor: Joseba Yerro Izaguirre
Producer: Lisa Nowotny
Performance Photos: Ola Kjelbye

Synopsis: Eleftheria's mother, Kiki, is illiterate. Throughout her upbringing, letters remained mysteries—secret curlicues, a boundary between herself and the initiated. But the stories echoing within her needed to come out, to live on and be told to others. A necessity so undeniable that Kiki invented her own alphabet.

The Little Girl with Gortsa is a personal and poetic play about a mother who grew up in a refugee village in northern Greece, inhabited by Armenians expelled from Turkey. It was a place shaped by stones and tobacco plants, a constrained world for those who were considered neither Greeks nor Turks—a place where survival demanded hard work.

The performance also tells the story of her daughter, who had to leave her home village to pursue her dreams. And how her mother’s tales of survival offered her comfort along the way. It’s a story about shame and love, class and origin, carried by the need to express oneself and bring inner images to life.

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Troy has fallen. The city lies in ruins. Queen Hecuba sits in mourning on her husband’s throne, holding his severed head in her hands. The bodies of her sons lie at her feet. Yet three of her children remain alive, and the youngest, Polydorus, heir to the throne, is in hiding from the conqueror Agamemnon.

Hecuba, by the acclaimed Irish playwright Marina Carr and directed by Helena Sandström Cruz, is a modern and impassioned reimagining of Euripides’ drama. It is a timeless exploration of the civilian cost of war, of relentless cycles of violence, and of conflicts that leave no victors.

The play moves fluidly between narration and enactment, allowing the audience to shift perspective. Characters on both sides are given space to express a wide range of emotions: doubt, shame, anger, grief and empathy.

In this production, the searing text is matched by bold visual imagery and newly composed music by Stefan Johansson.

The cast features Marta Andersson-Larson, Johan Friberg, Mia Höglund-Melin, Emil Ljungestig, Jesper Söderblom and Oméya Simbizi from the theatre’s ensemble, alongside Casper Karlsson, intern from the Theatre Academy at Luleå University of Technology.

Helena Sandström Cruz is an actor and director who has staged both classical and contemporary work at venues including Uppsala Stadsteater and Dalateatern. In autumn 2023 she directed Euripides’ Backanterna (The Bacchae) at Borås Stadsteater, and in autumn 2025 she directed Macbeth at the same venue. During her Master’s studies at Stockholm University of the Arts, she focused in particular on the work of Euripides.

First production performed at The Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon by The Royal Shakespeare Company 24th September 2015. Play published by The Gallery Press 2015. This production has been licensed by arrangement with The Agency (London).

By: Jerker Beckman
Director: Niklas Hjulström
Cast: Karin de Frumerie, Marie Delleskog, Carina M Johansson, Victoria Olmarker, Maria Salomaa, Robin Stegmar, among others.
Interns from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg: Eric Almefalk, Klara Bremberg, Tuva Börgö, Elias Citterio, Jason Iskander, Hilda Krepper, Ellen Linder, Erik Mattsson, Joel Möller, Elesine Naucler, Ania Scheja, Bakri Wazzan
Set design: Richard Andersson
Costume design: Jonna Bergelin
Hair and makeup design: Jessica Cederholm
Lighting design: Patrik Bogårdh
Composition: Andreas Kullberg
Sound design: Karin Bloch-Jörgensen, Andreas Kullberg
Video design: Ludde Falk
Choreography: Peter Svenzon
Dramaturg: Joel Nordström
Synopsis: In the summer of 2001, the heads of state and government of the EU countries gather in Gothenburg. The summit is also attended by the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Thousands of demonstrators take to the streets - protesting the President’s visit, the European Union, and the global market economy. This production presents a large-scale, musically and visually driven story of dreams, struggle and love, written by Jerker Beckman and directed by Niklas Hjulström.

Despite good intentions and idealistic ambitions, with detailed plans for peaceful demonstrations, lectures and seminars, and despite an initial atmosphere of trust and dialogue between various organisations and the police, violence and chaos erupted. The so-called Göteborgskravallerna (Gothenburg Riots) became a global news story. The events have left a permanent mark on the history of the city and of Sweden, fundamentally altering the belief in a different future.

In the play, which weaves together past and present, we encounter multiple perspectives on the events. A police officer struggling to uphold his duty, a mother and daughter barricaded inside Hvitfeldtska Upper Secondary School, young activists with dreams - and many others. The production is based on extensive research and interviews with eyewitnesses. Here, Jerker Beckman once again collaborates with Niklas Hjulström, who directs at Göteborgs Stadsteater for the first time.

Among the performers are Karin de Frumerie, Marie Delleskog, Carina M Johansson, Victoria Olmarker and Maria Salomaa from the theatre’s ensemble, alongside Robin Stegmar, most recently seen in The Seagull. Göteborgs Stadsteater once again collaborates with the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, whose final-year acting students present their graduation performance in this production.

Niklas Hjulström is an actor and director, born and raised in Gothenburg. He is Artistic Director of Västmanlands Theatre and has previously served as Ensemble Director at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm, Artistic Director of Angered Teater, and of the main stage at Folkteatern in Gothenburg. As an actor, he made his breakthrough as police officer Benny Skacke in the Sjöwall–Wahlöö films and has since appeared in numerous roles on television, in film, and on stages across Sweden.

Jerker Beckman is a playwright, dramaturg and director. He has collaborated with Niklas Hjulström on several occasions, including Den stora branden 2018 (The Great Fire) and ASEA – här kommer framtiden! 2022 (ASEA – Here Comes the Future!) both at Västmanlands Teater. Beckman was deeply and profoundly affected by the events in Gothenburg in June 2001 and has known ever since that he would one day write about them.

Date: 23.04.2026, 19.00
Stage: Stora Teatern
Adress: Kungsparken 1 Göteborg
By: Oulouy / Paradox-Sal (F)
Cast: Allauné Blegbo, Émilie Desrosiers, Selasi Dogbatse, Valentina Dragotta, Nadia Gabrieli Kalati, Linda Hayford, Odile Lacides, Cynthia Lacordelle, Audrey Minko, Anaïs Mpanda, Marina Ojo, Stéphanie Paruta
Choreography: Paradox-Sal
Light: Xavier Lescat
Sound and arragements: Adrien Kanter
Composition flute: Esiname Dogbatse

Ouloy / Black
Black is a choreographic confrontation with the violence and struggle that shape the lives of Black people in today’s society. Through references to Black Lives Matter and the murder of George Floyd, Oulouy questions the place of the Black body in the Western world. The work explores how the Black body is perceived, defined, and challenged – how it is filled with stereotypes, desire, and fear. A body that carries both history and the present, that is both oppressed and celebrated, and that provokes reactions simply by existing. The story is told without words, but with a clear language: dance. Through street dance styles from the African continent and its diaspora in the USA, a visual manifesto is created that moves between trauma, pride, and political will. Black is as much a protest as it is a tribute – an homage to the movement, to survival, and to the strength in refusing to conform. Oulouy is a choreographer and dancer, born in the Ivory Coast and now based in Spain. His work moves in the borderland between activism and performing arts, focusing on the political charge of the Black body. Black is his first work, created in 2020, with which he has toured internationally. Oulouy is also the founder of the Barcelona-based Oyofe – a festival for African street dance.

Paradox-Sal / Woman
Bodies that remember, sisters that carry on. The French dance collective Paradox-Sal celebrates twelve years of sisterhood with Woman – a choreographic declaration of love for the women they have been, are, and will be. House and hip hop merge in a vibrant universe where every step tells of the group's common identity. These are bodies that remember, pass on, and take up space. Woman is also a tribute to those who paved the way, those who carried and broke. Sisters in the spotlight, mothers in the margins. All of them have left traces in Paradox-Sal's DNA. The collective was founded by the legend Ousmane "Babson" Sy with the vision of bringing together female dancers from different styles and experiences, with house as a common pulse. Today, Paradox-Sal is more than a dance collective, they are a feminist force in motion. Since Ousmane's death in 2020, the group has continued to grow, and Woman marks a new chapter: from idea to movement, from memory to future. On your own terms.

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