The Year of the Shark – about big emotions

In the spring of 2026, Brageteatret – regional theatre for Buskerud had its world premiere of "Haiens år" by Kristofer Grønskag. The script is a commissioned work for the target group 5th-7th grade. and the performance is touring in the Cultural School Backpack Buskerud, among other places.

The Year of the Shark is a story about big emotions, and how far we're willing to go to get what we want. Just because something is a story doesn't mean it's not true.  

And like so many stories, this one begins quite normally.
Klara lies awake in her bed. She is too in love to sleep.
Then the unusual happens…
She is visited by Bob, who has a mouth full of shark teeth.
He offers her darkness itself, and with darkness she can have everything her heart desires.
The only question is what she is willing to sacrifice on the way there.

Kristofer Grønskag says in an interview with Brageteatret about the performance that he thinks back to himself as a 12-year-old. Then he read The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, and for the first time experienced that there was a completely different world where you "don't just have to be like those who play football". With this as a backdrop, he began to play with the idea of ​​a world and a play ruled by Fantasy. And in his notebook, dated 2008, he found the title: The Year of the Shark.

– The title of the performance is inspired by the Chinese calendar: Each year belongs to an animal, and each animal carries with it some characteristics, but there is no “year of the shark”. The title appeared in 2008, which was, among other things, the year of the Financial Crisis; when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and took ordinary people’s finances, lives and with it the rest of the world in its wake. Today we see that democracies are being dismantled, leaders go to war against their own people and that entire nations are being sacrificed as pawns in geopolitical games. Profit is only measured in kroner and øre – rather than quality of life. If this time is an animal, then it is a shark. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that the performance itself is not written to “teach anyone anything”. Others can do that. With Year of the Shark I want to explore what can potentially happen to people who suddenly gain a lot of power.