ajhlovestheatre

THE NAME

by Jon Fosse

translated by Gregory Motton

directed by Simon Usher

White Bear Theatre, London – until 6 June 2026

running time: 80 minutes no interval

https://www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/the-name

If you like your stage drama strongly driven by propulsive narrative or vividly drawn characterisation enriched with erudite, elegant language, then you may struggle with The Name. Nobel Prize winning Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse’s 1995 drama, only now receiving its UK premiere in a terse, unvarnished translation from the original Nynorsk by Gregory Motton, exerts a certain intriguing spell, but you have to work with it. 

Centred on the unwilling homecoming of a pregnant young woman to her parents’ rural home, her somewhat ineffectual partner in tow, it’s a muted, elliptical study in miscommunication and the resentment that arises when one’s needs aren’t met. The characters -named just Girl, Boy, Mother, Father, Sister- talk in spiky, self-interested half sentences that don’t always seem to logically follow on from each other, as if to underline that these malcontents are barely listening to anybody else.  

It’s a script that steadfastly refuses to ingratiate. These self-absorbed figures and their non sequitur conversations suggest a Scandinavian Pinter, an impression reinforced by the brief flashes of quirky, brittle humour, and overall sense of domestic nihilism that permeates Simon Usher’s stripped back production. The silences, the spaces between the words, are as important as the words themselves.

Refreshingly neither Usher nor his cast seem interested in endearing the characters to us. Jasmin Dúfa Pitt is shrill, unsympathetic and extremely effective as the pregnant Girl. Marie Thorseth Molnes walks an interesting line between jollity and passive aggression as her strange but hearty sister. Daf Thomas is almost completely unreadable as the unhappy father-to-be. Valerie Gogan and Tony Bell provide probably the most engaging performances as the bewildered parents, finding as much humanity as the writing allows. Jan Martin injects some welcome comedy as the freewheeling, eccentric local man with whom Girl seems to have a romantic, or at least sexual, past and some unfinished business.

Fosse won the Norwegian Ibsen award for this strange but engaging play, and it has been produced fairly regularly throughout Europe. The Name’s impenetrability and deliberately low key tone mean that it will likely mystify and frustrate as many people as it pleases, but it’s fascinating to see a piece that refuses to play by the rules. It’s cool, clever and casts a shadow that persists long after its fleet eighty minute run time.