The Art of Playful Seriousness: Suzanne Osten (1944-2024)
Margareta Sörenson*
Suzanne Osten, who celebrated her 80th birthday this past June, was fully engaged as she worked on the production of a new play that should have been staged at The National Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm early next year. She was all life, love and intensity when suddenly the news came, on October 29th, that she was no more. After undergoing heart surgery, she left behind everything, her family, the theatre, and all her friends, colleagues and admirers from at least two generations. Her unexpected passing was a huge shock for the Swedish theatre community – she had always been there, always working on a new project, always involved in a debate, though amicable, always adopting a viewpoint that we, all the others, needed to consider.
In Sweden we used to say that children’s theatre of the country was the best in the world, thanks to Suzanne Osten. During her extremely active and productive life, she created theatre for adult audiences as well, conceived eight full length feature films, wrote a number of plays and authored several books; it is no exaggeration to call her a giant, and, despite her thin and fragile appearance, a solid pillar for the Swedish theatre community. Yet most significant in all her creativity was her unconditional support for children and their rights, and her insistence on love and respect for all children of all ages, babies included.

Her journey through the theatre universe was long and eventful, and after decades of increasing fame, she was promoted to the position Professor in stage directing at the University of the Arts, Stockholm. However, her early years as a theatre professional were more modest. In the 1960’s she left a small, avant-garde theatre to co-create a theatre group in 1967, The Pocket Theatre, which consisted of four actors searching for audiences in the streets and schools. The theatre community of the 1960’s and 70’s was open-minded and generous, rich in all aspects except for economic resources. As Suzanne Osten once noted about the young collective deeply inspired by Dario Fo, ”We carried our set design in a plastic bag from the supermarket.”
You might smile inwardly at such a display of self confidence and the naïve belief of the time in art and its potential. Yet this era marked a new aesthetic break-through, a challenge to form and aesthetics. However, Suzanne Osten outpaced all her peers with her precautious methods of researching, her theoretical curiosity, her profile as a cultural seeker, and her international network and ability to access rapidly all new trends in psychology, sociology and pedagogy, particularly with regard to feminism. Her play/musical created together with Margareta Garpe, Jeez Girls, Liberation is at Hands (1974), was a great success for years, and represented a breakthrough on a larger scale for Suzanne Osten. The following year she became the artistic leader of Unga Klara (Young Clara), a separate theatre group and stage within Stockholm City Theatre. The theatre director of the City theatre recognized Suzanne Osten’s force, competence and popularity, and soon enough this stage and ensemble was well-known and much appreciated. The first production in the Unga Klara, The Children of Medea, was a recreation and rethinking of Euripide’s Medea, where the dissolution of the marriage between Jason and Medea was seen from the perspective of the children. Why could not grown up parents accept their responsibilities and behave reasonably? Why must children pay for the shortcomings of adults?

But social problems and trauma were not enough for Suzanne Osten, even if young peoples’ suicides, anorexia or family problems such as growing up with a psychiatric parent were key themes frequently developed in her productions. Her belief in theatre as an art form was equally emphasized as she engaged in a permanent research process of improvisation, games, masks, puppetry and dance, in short, anything that could extend the meanings expressed through the language spoken from the stage. Actors who preferred to try out new styles and methods were her favorites, and curious actors wanted to join her ensemble, often characterized as elastic. Cross dressing and gender games always interested Suzanne Osten, long before the notion of queer was more widespread and accepted.
The process of creating a new production was a long term work in Suzanne Osten’s practice, based on interviews with the future audiences regarding the theme of the play. As the opening date of the performance approached, she would launch a series of pilot shows before test audiences as a guiding routine. Even when creating theatre for young children, including babies, she followed a similar process. In her view, the audience had the right to feel the respect and appreciation of the actors and director, combined with a warm and generous sense of humour. Her conviction was obvious: the audience should never be bored and if possible, they should be taken by surprise.
In the 1990’s Suzanne was teaching at the Uniarts in Stockholm when she was named Professor of stage direction. While her influence in theatre circles was already profound, in her new role as teacher, she had greater access to the structural possibility of forming and shaping new generations of actors and directors. As a vivid, intense and rapidly moving person, she often claimed that others moved too slowly. Thus, she also insisted on a broader perspective from her students as well; they, too, should experience the joy and creativity in working for young audiences. Thus, she created so-called childhood projects, even if her young students might hesitate, as if their own youth were too close, according to Osten. But she encouraged her students and required them to embrace a child’s perspective on society, to experience and delve into the position of a child in the family and society. In this capacity Suzanne Osten was energetic and intense, sometimes a challenge to her younger colleagues, not always easy and smooth, but consistently fair and generous, a great gift.
Suzanne Osten championed human rights and the rights of the individual, the Children’s convention of the United Nations, the rights of ethnic minorities, feminism, LGBTQ rights, and in her later years she fought against age discrimination, in short, she addressed a vast array of problematics, but always with artistic excellence. Always delving into fantasy, yet serious, playful and intellectual, she was consistently entertaining. Among her many awards, one in particular deserves explicit mention, that of the International ASSITEJ Award of Artistic Excellence in 2002, a prize that truly reflects Suzanne Osten’s great impact on generations of theatre artists worldwide.

In her last book, Who does she Think she Is, Suzanne Osten, the author reflects on her own advanced age. Quoting a poet, she proposes that ”time does not exist.” Surveying the theatrical landscape which she created and the vast array thoughts and ideas on contemporary art which she expressed, it is easy to agree. Unfortunately, however, time does exist. But the words of the poet clearly characterize Suzanne Osten’s life experience, as she was in her way an exception to the rule, thus suggesting that time does not affect everyone in the same way.

*Margareta Sörenson is a theatre and dance critic based in Stockholm, Sweden. A former president of the International Association of Theatre Critics, her orientation is toward multidisciplinary stage arts such as contemporary dance, circus, animation theatre, and the influence of classical Asian performing arts in European culture. She is a member of the Research Commission of UNIMA, the international association for puppetry.
Copyright © 2024 Margareta Sörenson
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, #30, Dec. 2024
e-ISSN: 2409-7411
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