The first book to present plays by Sweden's greatest living playwright in Englis
h Lars Noren, generally considered Sweden's greatest playwright since August Str
indberg, had his first play produced in 1973 at the Royal Dramatic Theater in St
ockholm, when he was about 30. His breakthrough came in 1982 with Night Is Mothe
r to the Day. Noren has since written about 75 plays that combine humor with pow
erful emotional impact and feature his dynamic search for new forms of expressio
n. His work has been translated into several languages and regularly performed i
n Nordic and European countries. Two Plays: And Give Us the Shadows and Autumn a
nd Winter is the first book to present Noren's plays in English. And Give Us the
Shadowsis a fictional work based on Eugene O'Neill's life, set in Marblehead, M
A, on O'Neill's 61st birthday, when he and his wife, Carlotta, are expecting a v
isit from his two sons. Autumn and Winter centers on parents and their two grown
up daughters who reveal family secrets during one of their regular monthly dinne
rs.
