María directs in a new theatre

A new theatre opens aboard the Viking ship Íslendingur at Viking World in Reykjanesbær in May. María Ellingsen directs the opening production, Brynja Benediktsdóttir’s witty monologue about the voyages of Guðríður. Þórunn Clausen transforms into a host of characters in the story of this adventurous woman; Snorri Freyr Hilmarsson designs the setting, Björn Bergsteinn Guðmundsson the lighting, Sveinbjörg María Ingibjargardóttir the costumes and Kjartan Kjartansson the sound.

Viking World opened almost a year ago in a striking new building centred on the ship Íslendingur, a masterpiece by Gunnar Marel Eggertsson, along with a fine exhibition on the Norse discovery of North America and a restaurant. The ship Íslendingur sailed the same route as Guðríður and Þorfinnur Karlsefni’s ship a thousand years earlier, making it a unique setting for this story, and the audience sits aboard and experiences the voyage. As Brynja said in an interview with Morgunblaðið some years ago, although the play is based on the travels of this most widely travelled woman of the Middle Ages, it is not really a travelogue but a frame for the story of a woman in a dangerous world – a story about someone who dares to take unconventional paths and face the sorrows and triumphs that come with them.