Bomb-like, Counting to Zero counts down from ten, across ten scenes, towards an explosive end. Ten seemingly unconnected stories about, among other things, a train, fireworks, a young reality star and her stalker, a sick dog, and a dead cow, are little by little woven together into a humorous and touching depiction of what it is like to be young in our media-obsessed culture. All of the 17 characters in the play have one thing in common: a deeply human need to be seen and heard.
‘Counting to Zero is a bomb of a text which counts down, through ten different scenes, from ten to an explosive end. The tableaus are, to begin with, seemingly unconnected until we little-by-little come to understand how they relate to and affect each other. […] Many of the tableaus end in skilfully crafted cliff-hangers which makes for an intensely gripping dramaturgy. In the end, everything revolves around our intense longing to seen and heard. It is intelligent, it is entertaining, and it is well-observed.’ /Amund Grimstad, Klassekampen
‘a mosaic of loosely connected scenes playing out across different times which when joined together creates a complete and impressively constructed whole. Blindheim Grønskag depicts a young generation in desperate search of something that matters, that demands something of you; something truly real and meaningful. Counting to Zero is deeply engaged with our time’.
/The Norwegian Ibsen Award Committee, 2018 nomination
’Counting to Zero has an episodic structure and the interconnectedness of the scenes only become apparent as one re-reads it; a testament to how well Grønskag constructs his plays.’
/The Jugendtheaterpreis Baden-Württemberg Jury, 2018
Counting to Zero has been longlisted for the Deutscher Jugendtheaterpreis and nominated for the Norwegian Ibsen Award, and has had more than 60 individual productions in Norway and Germany to date.
The play was selected as the Norwegian entry for Cut The Cord Theatre's New Nordics Festival