Ladies and Gentlemen.

Members of the jury.

Dear Jaha Koo.

The International Ibsen Award recognizes artists who expand our understanding of what theatre can be.

What theatre can contribute to society.

In this time of polarization, art can offer something different.

The stage allows for complexity.

It creates encounters between people.

Encourages us to see beyond our own assumptions and engage with experiences that may be unfamiliar to us.

Theatre remains a place where uncertainty, nuance and contradiction are not weaknesses.

They are strengths.

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Norway is a small country, yet blessed with playwrights of international stature, and none more so than Henrik Ibsen.   

You all know this, of course:

Henrik Ibsen is the world's second most performed playwright after Shakespeare, staged all over the world, to this day.

When one takes the time to consider it, it is almost absurd.

Because Ibsen did not write in a world language, like Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams.

Nor did he come from one of the great cultural nations of continental Europe, like Molière or Goethe.

He came from a small linguistic area.

From a country that had not yet attained nationhood.

That our language is filled with Ibsen's turns of phrase is natural.

That Ibsen's idioms and expressions have also left their mark on the English language is remarkable.

Of course, this is about the subject matter. How his work touches upon the universal.

Ibsen's dramas give voice to freedom of expression.

To democracy.

To individual responsibility.

To equality.

To the struggle against abuse of power and corruption.

Throughout his work, he has held a mirror up to society, and as such we tend to say that Henrik Ibsen remains modern even to this day.

And he does, of course.

But perhaps the most poignant way to look at it is that his plays show us what it means to be human. 

That they show – in some ways – the enduring truths of who we are.

The love.

The loss.

The struggle and the beauty.

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When the Norwegian government established the International Ibsen Award back in 2007, we sought both to honor this legacy, and to contribute to a global conversation about art, freedom, and democracy.

To celebrate those artists that bring about spaces where audiences are invited to listen to the past and discover new perspectives for the future.

Those artists who compel us to reflect, be provoked or simply moved by beauty.

Precisely the universal themes that encompass so much of Henrik Ibsens’ work.    

Today the award is recognized as among the world’s most prestigious theatre awards, by some referred to as the Nobel Prize of theatre.

The award reflects Norway's belief that art matters.

That artists play a vital role in shaping open, democratic societies.

By honoring artists from around the world, we celebrate the value of artistic exchange across cultures, languages, and borders.

The award is a recognition for outstanding artistic contributions.

A recognition of those who are able to show us – through prose or scenography or mixed media – the spaces in-between.

The spaces we do not often venture.

This year’s award-winner – Jaha Koo – creates precisely these spaces.

Koo's work reminds us that history is never simply behind us.

It continues to shape who we are.

How we understand the world.

His performances explore cultural identity, economic inequality, displacement and belonging.

Yet he does so through generosity, empathy and humor. Rather than telling audiences what to think, Jaha Koo invites us to think together.

His work demonstrates that political reflection does not always come through confrontation.

Sometimes it emerges through listening.

Through storytelling

Shared experience.

Like Henrik Ibsen, Jaha Koo challenges established narratives and asks difficult questions about society.

Like Ibsen, he examines the relationship between the individual and larger social structures.

Though – unlike Ibsen, it must be said – his plays include both talking rice cookers and robotic eels.

By awarding Jaha Koo The International Ibsen Award, we celebrate an artist who helps us understand our own history, engage with our present, and imagine more hopeful futures.

He too shows us the enduring truths of who we are.  

And by doing so, he may well be at the very core of what theatre can and should be.

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Dear Jaha:

It is your turn to take center stage.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Please extend a warm round of applause to this year’s winner of The International Ibsen Award: Jaha Koo.