This Isn’t Us

It’s summer, it’s morning, and we’re out of muesli. MY MOTHER, MY FATHER, MY SISTER and MY BROTHER wake up to what might seem like a normal day. But where am I? And how do you handle reality when something unreal has happened?

Monica Isakstuen’s new play pounces on the home as an electric minefield caught between safety and tyranny. It deals with grief and loss, the roles we have throughout life, about the relationships and constellations of which we are a part, and which are us, yet are not. In This Isn’t Us we follow a family through one dramatic day where the dividing line between love and loathing, sorrow and ecstasy becomes blurred. What is a nightmare and what is reality? It isn’t always clear.

The play was commissioned for Den Nationale Scene, with its Norwegian premiere on 26 January 2022.

MY FATHER

What about the kids?

MY MOTHER

We don’t own them

MY FATHER

They’re not my kids

MY MOTHER

No

MY FATHER

They’re not my kids

or don’t they exist?

MY MOTHER

We could just as well say they don’t exist

if it makes things easier for you

MY SISTER

We don’t exist?

MY MOTHER

No

MY BROTHER

I exist!

MY FATHER

Sorry about this, my boy

MY SISTER

If he doesn’t exist

then he can’t be your boy

MY BROTHER

Mum?

Aren’t you going to say anything?

MY MOTHER

I’ve got nothing to say

MY BROTHER

But we’re sitting here, you see that, right?

We’re here, Mum

right in front of your eyes!

MY FATHER

You heard what she said

You don’t exist