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Natta Syng Sine Songar ;Ein Sommars Dag: To Skodespel
They have a child and life changes. He can't go out and she can't stay in. He writes words that no one will publish and she takes a lover. "I don't know what it is/ that always make something happen/ But it must be something/ because something always happens/ I don't want anything to happen/ and then something/ happens all the same."
221 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1997
2 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Jon Fosse
238 books1,827 followersJon Olav Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart (Red, black). His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry, children's books, essays and plays. His works have been translated into more than forty languages. He is widely considered as one of the world's greatest contemporary playwrights. Fosse was made a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite of France in 2007. Fosse also has been ranked number 83 on the list of the Top 100 living geniuses by The Daily Telegraph.
He was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable".
Since 2011, Fosse has been granted the Grotten, an honorary residence owned by the Norwegian state and located on the premises of the Royal Palace in the city centre of Oslo. The Grotten is given as a permanent residence to a person specifically bestowed this honour by the King of Norway for their contributions to Norwegian arts and culture.
He was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable".
Since 2011, Fosse has been granted the Grotten, an honorary residence owned by the Norwegian state and located on the premises of the Royal Palace in the city centre of Oslo. The Grotten is given as a permanent residence to a person specifically bestowed this honour by the King of Norway for their contributions to Norwegian arts and culture.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 8, 2025
nors gal labiau 3,5 ✨
manau, kad šiemet skirsiu daug daugiau dėmesio pjesėms – labai jau patinka.
manau, kad šiemet skirsiu daug daugiau dėmesio pjesėms – labai jau patinka.
August 19, 2024
Drei Stücke Fosses, die aus seiner idiosynkratischen poetischen Warte heraus das Scheitern thematisieren: ein misslungener Ausreißversuch aus der Gesellschaft (Da kommt noch wer), ein gescheiterter Familienversuch und die daraus erwachsenen Probleme für Kinder und Enkelkinder (Der Name), schließlich das Scheitern der Kommunikation an sich (Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder).
Seine Sprache zieht den Leser unweigerlich in einen Bann aus Tristesse und Resignation, dieser entfaltet allerdings nicht die gleiche Wirkung wie in der Sammlung "Ich bin der Wind". Die gewollte Redundanz wirkt insebsondere in einigen Gruppenszenen zu aufgepfroft, während sie in Dialogen ihre volle Kraft entfaltet.
Das stärkste Stück ist das letzte der Sammlung, deren ersten beide leider nicht ganz dieselbe Qualität aufweisen. Trotzdem ist Fosse ein Autor, den ich weiter belesen möchte.
Seine Sprache zieht den Leser unweigerlich in einen Bann aus Tristesse und Resignation, dieser entfaltet allerdings nicht die gleiche Wirkung wie in der Sammlung "Ich bin der Wind". Die gewollte Redundanz wirkt insebsondere in einigen Gruppenszenen zu aufgepfroft, während sie in Dialogen ihre volle Kraft entfaltet.
Das stärkste Stück ist das letzte der Sammlung, deren ersten beide leider nicht ganz dieselbe Qualität aufweisen. Trotzdem ist Fosse ein Autor, den ich weiter belesen möchte.
March 3, 2024
Meine ersten Theaterstücke von Jon Fosse und sie waren genauso brillant wie seine Romane. Und genauso minimalistisch. Auch hier wird trotz so weniger Worte eine starke Atmosphäre aufgebaut, in der die Beziehungen der Figuren eindeutig zu erkennen sind!
Er erzählt hier in diesem Werk von misslungenen Liebesbeziehungen, die alle auf ihre eigene Weise ausarten.
Er erzählt hier in diesem Werk von misslungenen Liebesbeziehungen, die alle auf ihre eigene Weise ausarten.
April 25, 2024
Kurz. Knapp. Dramatisch. Traurig. Zu Herzen gehend und sich in den Gedanken festkrallend. Freue mich, sie irgendwann auf der Bühne zu sehen.
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February 23, 2025A newborn causes problems in a marriage. Fosse uses simple language and repetition to powerful lyrical effect. Looking forward to reading something from him of more substance.
May 27, 2025
Whispers in the Dark: Nightsongs by Jon Fosse Stays with You
I read Nightsongs in one quiet evening, and it felt like holding someone’s breath in my hands. Jon Fosse doesn’t shout. He whispers—and somehow, that hits deeper.
The story is simple on the surface. A young couple in a small, creaky flat. He’s a writer waiting to be discovered. She’s waiting for him to become someone. There’s a baby crying in the next room. Not much happens—but inside, everything shakes.
Fosse writes like music. Repetition, pauses, silence—his sentences loop and echo like thoughts in the dark. I found myself holding still, almost afraid to breathe too loud, as if I’d interrupt something fragile.
And yet, this play is full of tension. Not loud fights, but quiet disappointments. Not screaming, but waiting. Hoping. Fearing. The kind of emotion that doesn’t explode—it just seeps in, like fog.
What I loved most was the honesty. The way Fosse lets doubt and longing fill the space between words. I didn’t just read this—I felt it.
Nightsongs isn’t drama in the usual sense. It’s life caught in slow motion, when everything seems small but weighs a ton.
It left me quiet. Moved. And a little haunted.
Fosse doesn’t need much to break your heart. Just a night, a voice, and the silence in between.
I read Nightsongs in one quiet evening, and it felt like holding someone’s breath in my hands. Jon Fosse doesn’t shout. He whispers—and somehow, that hits deeper.
The story is simple on the surface. A young couple in a small, creaky flat. He’s a writer waiting to be discovered. She’s waiting for him to become someone. There’s a baby crying in the next room. Not much happens—but inside, everything shakes.
Fosse writes like music. Repetition, pauses, silence—his sentences loop and echo like thoughts in the dark. I found myself holding still, almost afraid to breathe too loud, as if I’d interrupt something fragile.
And yet, this play is full of tension. Not loud fights, but quiet disappointments. Not screaming, but waiting. Hoping. Fearing. The kind of emotion that doesn’t explode—it just seeps in, like fog.
What I loved most was the honesty. The way Fosse lets doubt and longing fill the space between words. I didn’t just read this—I felt it.
Nightsongs isn’t drama in the usual sense. It’s life caught in slow motion, when everything seems small but weighs a ton.
It left me quiet. Moved. And a little haunted.
Fosse doesn’t need much to break your heart. Just a night, a voice, and the silence in between.
November 27, 2022
I had not heard of Fosse until the beginning of this month. I think the library made a mistake because I thought I had ordered the novella Wakefulness but this was what was waiting for me at my local branch. As someone has already noted, the laconic dialog reads far too easily for one to fully imagine how this drama might unfold on stage. It is about people's inability to communicate feelings effectively. What is more, it is hard based on the what is made known to us how the young couple at the center of the novel got to the point of having a baby together when they, or at least the wife is at her wits end with her partner's behavior. That sad, while it is easy to see the ending as somewhat hackneyed, I do find myself thinking about it and what it says about the chasm that can develop between two people who love each other when mental illness is not confronted.
December 27, 2023
Theaterstücke, reiner Dialog, liest sich schnell, etwas anstrengend wegen der Form.
Unheimlich traurige Geschichten. Nicht weil viel passiert, sondern weil nichts passiert. Die Sehnsüchte und Schmerzen sind den Figuren in jedes Wort geschrieben und doch reagieren die anderen meist mit Gleichgültigkeit und Resignation, einem"Ja". Dabei wiederholen sich die Aussagen oft, so als wollten die Figuren ihr Leiden noch mehr zeigen. Doch sie selbst tun ebenfalls nichts, und so stecken sie alle in ihren grauen, von Angst gehaltenen Realitäten fest. Ich frage mich, wie man so leben kann...
Unheimlich traurige Geschichten. Nicht weil viel passiert, sondern weil nichts passiert. Die Sehnsüchte und Schmerzen sind den Figuren in jedes Wort geschrieben und doch reagieren die anderen meist mit Gleichgültigkeit und Resignation, einem"Ja". Dabei wiederholen sich die Aussagen oft, so als wollten die Figuren ihr Leiden noch mehr zeigen. Doch sie selbst tun ebenfalls nichts, und so stecken sie alle in ihren grauen, von Angst gehaltenen Realitäten fest. Ich frage mich, wie man so leben kann...
August 23, 2025
Litt treg start og karakterer som føles uviktige. Så tar det seg opp den første natten og tempoet følger etter. Et stykke om depresjon, utroskap, vilje, skjebne og valg. Veldig vakkert skrevet, spesielt siste scene. Derimot føles slutten litt vel klisje, og bryter med karakterens væremåte. Hadde likt og sett en annen slutt.
December 7, 2025
Die Stücke von Fosse haben einen gleichsam hypnotischen Charakter. Die ständigen Wiederholungen der Protagonisten wirken irgendwiw wie ein Brennglas auf scheinbar triviale Situationen. Diese frühen Stücke wirken fast noch roher als die Sammlung "Ich bin wie der Wind", aber sie sind genauso anmutig und schön.
October 21, 2023
uma das primeiras peças de fosse, onde a sua temática do desespero irremediável está mais bem retratada. o ritmo dos diálogos, quase sempre numa oscilação entre o repetitivo e o encantatório, é uma antevisão de algo muito presente na sua prosa mais actual.
December 19, 2024
Natta syng sine songar var en gjenkjennlig og noe uinteressant historie, men med en litt sjokkerende slutt. Ein sommars dag likte jeg veldig godt.
December 16, 2022
Stifled emotions and failed communication.
The play features four unnamed characters (young man, young woman, mother, father) and Baste, the young woman’s lover. The young couple are in a failing relationship: he is fearful of social contact and of leaving the house, spending his time writing and submitting in vain to publishers; she laments his isolation, the fact that it is driving away her friends, and reiterates that she can’t take it any more and needs to get out of the house.
The dialogue is stripped down to short, often incomplete utterances. There is little poetry in the words themselves and the drama is found in the gap between, or mismatch between the words and the feelings implicit in the behavior of the cast. Implicitly, all of the emotion has been sucked out of the dialogue (love, fear, ambition, hate) or has been replaced by trite catch phrases. Given this, it is difficult to get the full impact of the play without seeing it performed (and it would take a skilled cast to bring the best out of this work by Fosse).
This is my first reading of a dramatic work by Fosse and I found it somewhat disappointing relative to the first part of Septology. But I’m keen to check out more of his work.
My Fosse reviews:
Nightsongs (1997) 3*
Aliss at the Fire (2004) 4* .
The Other Name: Septology I-II (2019) 5*
I is Another: Septology III-V (2020) 5*
A New Name: Septology VI-VII (2022) 5*
The play features four unnamed characters (young man, young woman, mother, father) and Baste, the young woman’s lover. The young couple are in a failing relationship: he is fearful of social contact and of leaving the house, spending his time writing and submitting in vain to publishers; she laments his isolation, the fact that it is driving away her friends, and reiterates that she can’t take it any more and needs to get out of the house.
The dialogue is stripped down to short, often incomplete utterances. There is little poetry in the words themselves and the drama is found in the gap between, or mismatch between the words and the feelings implicit in the behavior of the cast. Implicitly, all of the emotion has been sucked out of the dialogue (love, fear, ambition, hate) or has been replaced by trite catch phrases. Given this, it is difficult to get the full impact of the play without seeing it performed (and it would take a skilled cast to bring the best out of this work by Fosse).
This is my first reading of a dramatic work by Fosse and I found it somewhat disappointing relative to the first part of Septology. But I’m keen to check out more of his work.
My Fosse reviews:
Nightsongs (1997) 3*
Aliss at the Fire (2004) 4* .
The Other Name: Septology I-II (2019) 5*
I is Another: Septology III-V (2020) 5*
A New Name: Septology VI-VII (2022) 5*
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews