Olof Wretling: Sorry for putting a banana in your face, Beckett

An sms from "dad" Johan Ulveson puts the comedian from Umeå in front of the absurdist from Ireland. Olof Wretling keeps a diary about when he gets an unexpected theater role and tries to hold back his despair. A print from Dagens Nyheter, 2026-10-19 8:30 PM Original address of the article: https://www.dn.se/kultur/olof-wretling-forlat-for-att-jag-la-en-banan-i-ansiktet-pa-dig-beckett/ Olof Wretling: Sorry for putting a banana on your face, Beckett Get more from DN if logged in Do you know you can create a free account on DN? As a logged-in user you can access several smart features. - Follow your interests - Newsletter April 3, 2025 It pops up on my mobile when I'm in the grocery store. It's a text message from Johan Ulveson. He writes that Karl Dunér should put on "The End Game" by Beckett and that there is a suggestion that I should be in it. He writes that it is a much darker and perhaps funnier play than "Waiting for Godot". In most cases, it usually takes me several days to reply to work requests. I have to chew it over for at least three days first. But Johan and I did two seasons of "Dad's Money" for SVT and we found each other in front of and behind the camera. I feel like I want to reply quickly, right now, because the desire to be with Johan is greater than all the fear of messing up in a Beckett play. So I reply: "Dad ❤️ Incredible idea! I definitely want to be in." Everyone seems to have such difficulty with his texts and struggles with them. What if I, with dyslexia and jumping legs, am the one to crack the code? Am I possibly the chosen one? August 21, 2025 We will meet for the first time, me, Johan, and Karl. I read the play on the train to Stockholm twice. The dialogue is snappy, Beckett's text flows like water on wax paper, my lines are short, repetitive, and rhythmically inscribed. My character is a kind of servant and Johan's is a kind of dying king, who drives with his slave servant. I cup my hand to my ear and try to say my first line: "End, it's over, almost over, it must be almost over." I say it a few times to myself and think it sounds a little fun. Tomorrow we have a reading at the theater and I check into the hotel. I turn off the reading lamp and put Beckett on the nightstand. What if I become a Beckett expert? Everyone seems to have such difficulty with his texts and struggles with them. What if I, with dyslexia and jumping legs, am the one to crack the code? Am I possibly the chosen one? Good night! December 4, 2025 I haven't heard from Johan and Karl for several months. I have understood that Karl has hooks on different stages in Stockholm. Karl wants to do it at the Orionteater but it must fit the repertoire. I have just finished "Monster's Time" and am not particularly in the mood to go to Stockholm again. No one would be upset if I left, but I am a little drawn to that Beckett. Today I read a little about him. Samuel Beckett, an Irish writer and dramatist, born in Ireland in 1906, died in Paris in 1989. Known as one of the proponents of absurdism. When I think about it, others often describe Klugan's humor as a bit strange or comically incomprehensible. December 14, 2025 Today my oldest daughter turns a year older. I wish she were home, she is studying in Gothenburg. It is so quiet at home without her and she is the one who brings me down to earth. I look at the bus stop from the kitchen window, I often look at it, and think: I am Olof Wretling, a Swedish comedian and actor, born in Umeå in 1975. Known as one of the proponents of absurdism! She is there. I am not leaving. February 12, 2026 Everything has been fast lately. The Orionteater has an opening and we will run in the autumn. We will see each other at the theater again and Karl is in a daze. We are going to read very soon, says Karl, but first he wants to tell a little. Then he talks for an hour about Beckett. He knows everything about Beckett and describes all the layers of the play and Johan nods in agreement. I don't understand anything but nod rhythmically so that the conversation doesn't lose momentum. There are four of us in the ensemble with me, the other three tell about their relationship to the play, and when it's my turn I suddenly become unsure whether we are playing Brecht or Beckett. I peer at the cover of the script and say Beckett's name a little too loudly and then that I have seen "Waiting for Godot" at... at... at the City Theatre, Karl asks with his gentle voice. No, at The Theater Magazine in Umeå, two theater teachers did it. I think I saw the whole thing. I just drop the text. And every time Johan says something everyone laughs, even me. Damn, how good he is. When we are going to read, every line I say feels like a fish in a barrel. I just drop the text. And every time Johan says something everyone laughs, even me. Damn, how good he is. Karl puts his hand on my shoulder. This is nice. At home in Karlstad again I stare blankly at the bus stop, a delayed student trying to catch up with the bus. Why did I say yes to this? I will never become a Brecht expert. March 5, 2026 At the reading, Karl shared a booklet about Beckett that he has compiled. I skim through it quickly, several texts are in English and the booklet is at least 100 pages. I take a deep breath. I put it on the kitchen table, next to the fruit bowl. The front cover is a picture of Beckett staring like a grumpy old man at the neighborhood, right into me. I put a banana over him so he doesn't see me. March 8, 2026 Someone has taken the banana that blamed Beckett's grumpy look. I know I have to read Karl's booklet, but not now, I need to... get in shape. I need to be in good shape in the autumn. If I fail at the role, they will at least say "but wow what a great shape Olof was anyway". So I cycle there and back. August 10, 2026 I stand by the kitchen window and look at the bus stop as usual. My mind often has catastrophic thoughts and worry burns out and then the bus stop is a good place for me to rest my eyes. The routine of standing here and watching everyone wait for the bus is peaceful. There is a tension in waiting, and that keeps my despair in check. I am so used to deciding everything myself, I write my own texts, am involved in the design of costumes and masks and scenography. But now I just have to act. How do you do that? August 12, 2026 In three weeks we start rehearsing. I have had a phone call with Karl and the other members of the ensemble are so set on working with this type of theater. For me, it is actually the first time in MY ENTIRE LIFE that I am playing someone else's drama on a stage. I am so used to deciding everything myself, I write my own texts, am involved in the design of costumes and masks and scenography. But now I just have to act. How do you do that? What if I don't live up to Karl's expectations when we work. I have to read the compendium, I have to look at all the film adaptations, I have to listen to all the interviews Karl has done about Beckett. August 13, 2026 Today I went through the compendium. I am saved. The compendium is a kind of compass through Beckett's winding and wild landscapes. Suddenly I don't feel as confused anymore. Like when playing video games and feeling really lost at the first boss you have to die to advance. At the beginning you have hubris, you think you can manage it on the first try, then it feels impossible, then you get a trick from the polar bear, you have to shoot the boss between your eyes, then it dies. So you get to level 2. And there I am now. August 14, 2026 Sorry for putting a banana on your face, Beckett. August 18, 2026 Beckett was a kind and funny person. Karl said that on the phone today. That many think Beckett was a grumpy, anxious older gentleman but he was a joker. And kind, gave money to friends who needed it, and doubted his works. August 19, 2026 I sit with a napkin and slowly run it over the script, like when you learned the glosses in middle school. But it has never worked for me to sit still while learning the text so I can walk around the lake at our house. A round of five kilometers that most people in the neighborhood walk at some point a week. There are many people today, but while everyone else walks with their mobile in hand, I walk with a script. I run the napkin over my lines and read aloud, first Johan's and then my line. After "Dad's Money" I became very good at imitating his wonderful voice. So I walk around Kroppkärrssjön, with a script in hand and talk like Johan Ulveson. August 20, 2026 Today I said Brecht instead of Beckett again. So terribly embarrassing. August 25, 2026 I have gone through half the play. I know almost all my lines and I like them. In a week it is collationering. Karl is in Paris and preparing, writing emails all the time about different philosophers, composers, and sources of inspiration for Beckett. I recognize his drive. I remember when I was 16 and knew everything about bungee jumping. I knew what shoe size Patrik Sjöberg had, I knew which street Stefan Holm lived on even though I never set foot in Kil. I knew how to top the form and I knew that no one in the world could shake my dream – to be the best in the world. It was just about putting the puzzle together. And that's what I do with Beckett now, Karl sends puzzle pieces from Paris and I put the pieces right home in Karlstad. September 1, 2026 Got up early. Took the morning train to Stockholm. In a way, I have never been so prepared for a rehearsal start before. When we did Klugan and Mom's new guy, everything was chaos until premiere. Scenes have come and gone in the end. Now I know almost all my lines and have read the play countless times. But I don't know how it will sound, what sound, what style, what tempo, what band I am with and playing in. I lie in the rest room. Marianne Mörck apparently lived here at the theater when she worked at the Orionteater. Right now my head is calm but in ten minutes the rehearsals begin. I hear someone shout my name. I get up from Marianne Mörck's old bed. I am Olof Wretling and I can only be myself. Let's go! "The End Game", premiere 10/24, Orionteater in Stockholm.