The author
The origin of Cellophane
Cellophane had its world premiere in Iceland in the spring of 2002. The venue was a closed down fish factory turned into a 100 seats theatre located in a small town on the outskirts of Reykjavik. The goal was to have a run of 10-15 performances or for as long as the money allowed.
That was 8 years ago. Cellophane was performed 220 times in Iceland. Half a year after the opening the play was moved to a 400 seats venue and ended up in a tour around the country. In 2003 the first contract was made with a foreign company and Cellophane has now been staged in 12 countries accross Europe.
But how does a play like this come about?
The author, Björk Jakobsdóttir, is an actress who founded a theatre along with her collegues in 1993. The theatre specialized in staging only new plays and adaptations. At the same time she started a family and had her first child. When she had worked as a dramaturge and acted numerous roles as the wife of the leading (male) role in plays written by men for men she started to get impatient.
Lets give her the stage:
„Was this all there was to it in modern play writing? Why wasn´t anybody writing anything for me? For young women?“
So she started to learn about plays written by women.
„The funny thing was that I couldn´t find any plays that focused on a life like mine. I found no plays about a working mom with two kids who was trying her utmost to make it…as the perfect mother, as a career woman, as the perfect wife, not to mention trying to look like Angelina Jolie…32 kilos with the silicon and preferably adopt a child frome every continent while you´re at it.“
Björk found on the other hand a dozen of plays written by the generation of her mother. By those strong women who fought for women´s rights…god bless and she´ll always be grateful for their struggle. Björk had some questions though, lingering in her head.
„Had the dream been thought to the end?“
„I just don´t have this equality/women´s rights/freedom feeling.“
„I can´t just choose to stay at home. I have to work. And I have this feeling of guilt that won´t leave me. Guilt towards kids, husband, home, work…not to mention that I´m still 20 kilos and 10 plastic surgeries from becoming Angelina Jolie!“
„Those thoughts wouldn´t leave my mind.“
„The problem was that with the kids and the dog and the husband and the job and the house there was no time for writing.“
„So I wrote in my mind. While I did the dishes, while I drove the kids to school and kindergarten and while I sat in the sofa at night and should have been making out with my old man.“
„Suddenly I threw away the vacuum cleaner and said to my husband: „I have to write a play! You take over the home and the kids while I´m at it.“ 3 days later the work was done! In my view a highly political piece about the situation of the modern women in today´s society! Stiff with stress and nervousness I asked my husband to read it through since he is jin the same business being a writer and a director. He went upstairs and started reading. After a while I could hear him laughing out loud. Filled with anger I ran up and screamed at him that there was no need to laugh at my heartfelt and political play. He sais: I´m really sorry darling…but I think it´s really funny!“.
And so it was. And the premiere crowd thought no differently.
„The life we lead is of course absoloutely hilarious, given all the ridiculous demands we try to meet in order to achieve the goals and the status of modern society.“
„Can you tell me who has the right to tell me that a happy couple should make love two times a week on average? 2 times a week!! Who made this research and what does it mean? Am I not filling the happyness qouta if I´m not doing it twice a week? What if I do it more often? Am I then a sex addict? Do I need proffesional help to fix that? And where does people find the time do it all the time?“
„Then there are the weekends. They are no different. No, no, then you have to plan the relaxation. Go swimming and to the zoo, drive the kids to football practice, let them study, go outside, meet our friends, work on the relationship…come Monday morning you are twice as tired as before the weekend started.“
„No, one just has to learn to chill out!“
„Even if this play is written by a woman and is about a woman it is also about the men. Our darlings who are also on thin ice when it comes to equality and women´s rights. They also have their Cellophane days.“
Love
Björk