The game about Saint Olav 2025
Storytelling, experience and engagement!
In the game, we experience life on the mountain farm Sul in Verdal in the evening and night of 29 July 1030. Big politics intervenes in daily life, faith meets doubt, the most vulnerable individual meets the king. How do people react to impending war and orders to discard their own values and culture? What happens when family is suddenly pitted against family?
Author Olav Gullvåg and composer Paul Okkenhaug have created a theater performance in which we get close to these questions which are highly relevant even today. Welcome to new experiences about the people and events that shaped Norway!
In the game's more than 70-year history, various instructors, actors, amateurs and volunteers have taken part in performing this story and putting their own stamp on Olav Gullvåg's text and Paul Okkenhaug's music. As the producer responsible for the game, Stiklestad National Cultural Center is concerned that the story is told and performed in different ways, so that we can feel both the tradition and how this affects us today. The stories told in the game are about the big turning point: after Olav's fall, Norway as a kingdom is no longer questioned. The consequences after 1030 are of such a nature that we will celebrate the national jubilee in 2030 - Norway for a thousand years.
In the performance, we meet both the close and the big stories: societal change, change of faith, change of mentality. Everyday life on the farm is challenged by big politics, and the most vulnerable individual meets the king. After Olav has ridden into the farmyard, life will not be the same...
Played at Stiklestadamfi, 3 km. from the center of Verdal. The amphitheater has 4 price categories and has seating for around 5.000 spectators. The performance lasts approx. 2 hours without a break. Dogs not allowed.