OFDA! 'Norwegians' in Minneapolis at Dark & Stormy Productions

Photo by Rick Spaulding

Norwegians, a play by C. Denby Swanson, and directed by Matthew G. Anderson, is being performed at Dark and Stormy Productions in Minneapolis through January 5th.

In this adaptation, two hooded gangsters are introduced stomping their boots with crime jazz noir-ish music playing. Their names are Tor and Gus (Luverne Seifert and Avi Aharoni) and they are the hitmen Olive (Jane Froiland) and Betty (Sara Marsh) hired to deal with their infuriating exes.

“You're gangsters, right?” Olive asks in a comedic moment as hitmen question her motives shining a bright light in her face while doing so.

“Good things are important when bad things happen, aren’t they Gus,” Tor says in a shrewd way to convince Olive that hiring a hitman is the right thing to do.

Olive is a transplant from Texas and Betty originates from Kentucky, but neither of them are prepared for the Norwegian men they fall in love with and their contradictions of practical, warm, thoughtful, destructive, evil, and jilting manners. These characters seem to believe they know what it means to be Norwegian. 

Betty says, "They (the Norwegians) are weather proofed, as children, to not mind extreme cold or large flying bugs.  Or Canada. They don't mind being close to Canada.  They are insulated, somehow."   Tor and Gus deliver countless funny gags and jokes that will make you laugh and relate as a Minnesotan like this one, “Norway, very cold.  It's cold.  Have you been? No?  Minnesota has nothing on the homeland.  I mean I love Minnesota.  Its a very nice place.  But my little reptile brain goes back to Norway."

Photo by Rick Spaulding

Betty’s character is nonchalant and relaxed, her UGG boots stretched out on the table as she attempts to convince Olive she should hire a hitman to kill her ex-boyfriend. “The cold begins to affect your soul,” she says. The women’s small talk reminds me of times I've chatted over drinks with good friends.

Some of the most memorable things in this play are the subtle details including fake snow, or a character frantically scouring through their purse, or the cute moments when characters run their fingers though another’s hair, so caught up in the deep emotions associated with love and the conspiring qualities that come with it.

The production is performed on the floor inside a U-shape circle of chairs so it’s easy to feel deeply immersed in the play with the actors performing monologues and breaking the fourth wall engaging directly with the audience, sometimes inches away from their face. During the show I attended, one patron raised his hand to do 'the wave', like he was at a Twins game, and another repeated a line from the play "So Norwegian" and shook their head.


Located in the second floor of the Grain Belt Warehouse in northeast Minneapolis, this building is often referred to as ‘the castle.’ You’ll find several buildings within the complex including a brew house, power station, wagon shed, grain belt offices, bottle house, warehouse and a railroad spur. Free parking is located on the west side of the building. It's ADA accessible with a ramp.

Tickets at www.darkstormy.org
Upcoming: Doubt at Dark and Stormy Productions, opens Good Friday in April.