Click on image to buy ticket
Cecilia Saverman doesn’t ease you into Cecilia Vasa’s world — she drops you straight into the madness. Five years of research left her with a life so outrageous it barely feels real: piracy confrontations that make you laugh and wince in the same breath, scandals that rattled royal courts across an entire continent, and family letters so chaotic they read like a soap opera you shouldn’t enjoy but absolutely do.
What Saverman captures is the full, contradictory force of Cecilia Vasa herself — heroine, caring mother, sharp diplomat, messy party princess, egocentric daredevil, unstoppable climber of mountains and faller into pits who always gets back up. With director Judith Hollander, she throws the audience between comedy and tragedy, intimacy and grandness, hope and surrender, never letting the story settle into one tone for long.
And beneath all the spectacle sits something fiercer: a history that was actively deleted, now brought forward almost as an act of defiance. Saverman isn’t preaching. She’s reclaiming. She wants audiences to feel closer to their own past, to recognise how stories about women become political whether anyone intends them to or not.
This is Cecilia Vasa returned to the stage — vivid, volatile, and impossible to ignore.
What’s the single most shocking thing about Cecilia Vasas life that will make people gasp?
– Well, since her life just keep getting crazier and more unfathomable for every step along the way, it’s hard to pick just one thing. My five year research was a never-ending rollercoaster.
Which moment in the show makes you laugh and wince at the same time?
-There is an episode where her brother confronts her about her piracy, and she has to admit to a lot of what she’s done.
How far did you push the sex and scandal onstage, and why that exact level of explicitness?
-The sex aspect is suggestive, but not explicit. The scandal, however, shook the entire continent – f the royal courts are to be trusted about these matters, that is. While the acts in and of themselves plants the seed for her struggle for freedom and sets her off on her path in life, I’m more interested in the consequence of the acts, rather than the acts themselves.
Did you ever fear the play would be banned or spark a diplomatic row?
Last time Cecilia Vasa was in the UK she was thrown out, so lets hope I have better luck with the Swedish-UK relations.
Is Cecilia a heroine, a mess, or gloriously both — and why should we care?
– Yes, yes, and yes. On top of that – she is also related to Boris Johnson! She is a heroine, a caring mother, a smart diplomat, a messy party princess, an egocentric daredevil, an unstoppable force who will climb any mountain, fall into every pit and always get up.
Are there scenes that touch on coercion or questionable consent and how do you approach that?
– No
Is there a line in the script which makes you blush when you say it out loud?
-Not while playing.
How do you want audiences to feel about monarchy and power when they leave the theatre?
-Difficult question. I want them to want to know more, because it’s our history, I guess. I want them to feel close to our common history. Cecilia Vasa is a princess, a pirate, a mother of seven – and also just a human being.
Do you think that there is a feminist message here or about women’s ‘role’ in society then and now?
– Yes. I think it’s impossible to tell a story about women today without it becoming political – in the same way I think that stories about lgbtq+ or about non-white people or about people who’s bodies are outside the norm automatically becomes political – whether it’s the intention or not. I wrote this story because Cecilia Vasa fascinated me to my core, and I saw so much of my surroundings, and myself, and my mother and society in her. It has never been about sending a message, but it becomes a message because it is a story that has never been told. It’s been actively deleted – which is of course very political – so bringing it forward might in a sense be an act of defiance .
What’s the one historical fact you refused to change, no matter how tempting the drama?
– Everything. It’s my interpretation of her life, but every fact is true.
How bawdy do the party scenes get, and how do you balance that with the darker fallout?
-I love tossing myself and the audience between highs and lows. My brilliant director Judith Hollander has created an intense balance between comedy and tragedy, intimacy and grandness, hope and surrender. She has so much to fight for, and sometimes she’s just hilarious. During my research I read many letters between her and her siblings, and it was like a soap opera. I would laugh out loud, between the horrors that they put themselves and each others through.
Have you ever had hecklers or walkouts, and what did you do when it happened?
-Not that I recall.
Would you ever stage a strictly adults‑only version — and what would you change?
– Maybe adding some more in the Elizabeth-scene, haha! The show is only 60 min now, so not everything can be in it…
What single image from the production do you want to haunt people for days, and why that image?
-You’ll have to come see the show! You’re in for a haunting treat!
Related
Leave a Reply