Gísli Örn Garðarsson, the Icelandic actor and director, has secured the rights to put on a stage version of The Brothers Lionheart in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the UK, Canada and the USA.
The production will be created alongside Australian musician Nick Cave, who will write the music.
Gísli Örn said in a recent interview with a Norwegian newspaper that he estimates the play will be ready for premiere at the National Theatre in London in about two years’ time.
Gísli Örn and Nick Cave have worked together several times before, including on Woyzeck and Metamorphosis with the Vesturport theatre company.
The storyline of the perennially popular Brothers Lionheart, by Astrid Lindgren, is familiar to many people and centers on the stories told by Jonathan to his critically ill brother about the land of Nangijala, where great adventures await those who die. The book was made into a well-known 1977 film, with the screenplay written by the author herself, RÚV reported.
Nick Cave will not be thinking much about the upcoming project at the moment, however, following the tragic news of his son’s death less than two weeks ago. 15-year-old Arthur Cave fell off a cliff in circumstances British police describe as not suspicious.
