Theatre
Beyond Our Power
Over Ævne I
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson · 1883
Opening lines
Hanna Roberts
Hvor solen skinner på bjørke-løvet der ute! Og som det er fint, dette løv her!
How the sun shines on the birch leaves out there! And how lovely these leaves here are!
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from nb.no
Synopsis
In the north of Norway, Pastor Adolf Sang lives by his faith: he believes in miracles and is said to obtain them through prayer. His wife Klara has long been ill, with an illness that the play shows to be inward as much as physical. Their children, Elias and Rachel, have grown up beside them. Sang sets out to obtain his wife's healing by the sole force of his faith, and the play follows this wait in an atmosphere of religious exaltation.
Context
The play appeared in 1883, but was not performed in Norway until 1899, with great success, at the Nationaltheatret. It is described as a mystical and symbolic drama about religious exaltation; a second part, from 1895, continues it. In Paris, Lugné-Poe staged it at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre in 1894 under the title Au-dessus des forces humaines, then revived it in 1897 and in 1901. Edwin Björkman translated it into English in 1913, and Éric Eydoux into French in 2010, together with its sequel.
Who it is for
A prose drama, readable in French in Éric Eydoux's translation, which brings the play and its sequel together in one volume.
Prizes and reception
One of its author's most frequently staged plays, put on in Paris by Lugné-Poe as early as 1894 and revived to this day.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.