THE JOURNEY TO VENICE Comes to the Finborough Theatre

The UK premiere of the award-winning The Journey to Venice opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 28 February 2023 (Press Nights: Thursday, 2 March 2023 and Friday, 3 March 2023 at 7.30pm).

Edith and Oscar Tellmann have been together since before they can remember. When their family life took a turn, the couple found solace in travel and adventure. But now they're well into their 80s, stuck in a drab flat, surrounded by cats, books, memories, and leaking pipes. As they journey into old age, the couple invent a new way to travel together...

The Journey to Venice is a celebration of ageing, fantasy, love, and the sacrifices we make in order to keep on living.

The Journey to Venice is a modern Norwegian classic, winning the Norwegian Ibsen Prize in 1992 and televised in 1993. Recently revived in Norway, it has been staged in Germany, the Czech Republic and Denmark, and now receives its long-overdue UK premiere at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre.

Playwright Bjørg Vik (1935-2018) made her mark on Norwegian literature over a period of more than thirty years. Born in Oslo, she made her literary debut in 1963 and went on to publish twenty five works, including novels, short stories, plays, and radio-plays. During the 1960s and 1970s, her work presented an unusual and provocative image of the erotically active woman, and she co-founded the feminist magazine Sirene. In 1974, her Two Plays For Five Women was a hit throughout the Nordic countries, and played internationally including on Broadway. At the end of the 1980s, she published the semi-autobiographical Elsi Lund trilogy of novels, bringing her work to a new generation. Her many awards included the Norwegian Critics' Prize for Literature, the Norwegian Ibsen Prize, the Norwegian Broadcasting's Radio-Play Prize, the Riksmål Society Literature Prize, the Bookseller's Award, the Dobloug Prize, the Aschehoug Prize, the Cappelen Prize and the Amalie Skram Prize, and three nominations for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize.

Translator Janet Garton is Emeritus Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia where she taught Scandinavian Literature and Languages 1969-2008. She has an MA and PhD from the University of Cambridge. She was made an MBE in 1995, was awarded Fritt Ords honnørpris in 2007 and became Ridder av Den kongelige norske fortjenesteorden in 2009. Her books include Jens Bjørneboe: Prophet without Honor (1985), Norwegian Women's Writing 1850-1990 (1993) and a biography of Amalie Skram: Amalie. Et forfatterliv (2011). She is a director of Norvik Press, and also a translator - most recently of Kirsten Thorup (The God of Chance, 2013), Johan Borgen (Little Lord, 2016), Erik Fosnes Hansen (Lobster Life, 2019) and Jan Kjærstad (Berge, 2019). In 2019-20, she was a guest researcher at the Society for Danish Language and Literature in Copenhagen.
Director Wiebke Green recently directed The New York Times Critics' Pick and OffWestEnd OnComm Winner The Poltergeist by Philip Ridley at the Arcola Theatre. Direction includes Tarantula (Southwark Playhouse), The Beast will Rise (Online for the New Normal Festival), Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), This Might Not Be It (R&D project with Bush Theatre and Broccoli Arts), and Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands (Vault Festival). She trained at the Orange Tree Theatre with an MA in Theatre Directing, and as Intern Director to Katie Mitchell on Orlando (Schaubühne Berlin) and Anatomie eines Suizids (Schauspielhaus Hamburg). Assistant Direction includes Scrounger (Finborough Theatre), Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), The Beast of Blue Yonder (ArtsEd), The Frontier Trilogy and Sirenia (Edinburgh Fringe). Her work with drama schools includes Heather's Wedding as a guest director for Mountview's Catalyst Festival ((Theatre503), As You Like It (MFA Shakespeare with the London School of Dramatic Art), and a forthcoming production for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.