Astrid Lindgren: Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter

Translated from Swedish by Eugenija STRAVINSKIENĖ

On a forest-covered hill, in a castle split by lightning, lives Ronja, a girl born into the family of Mattis, the leader of a band of robbers. Her days pass playing with the robbers and being doted on by her parents, while beyond the castle walls she awaits an introduction to the magical forest, full of gnomes, flying creatures and other extraordinary beings. Meanwhile, Mattis watches his growing daughter, hoping that Ronja will take over leadership of the robber band from him. Their everyday life, filled with robbery, gatherings and songs, is pierced like another bolt of lightning by the news that Mattis’s mortal enemy Borka has settled on the other side of the castle, with his band. Borka’s son Birk also lives with the robbers. When Ronja sees him for the first time, she feels that he is exactly the kind of little person, like herself, whom she has always longed for and waited for. Although at first the children, like their parents, compete and stubbornly stand their ground, they gradually become friends as they share adventures and trials. Their secret friendship becomes a challenge not only for the children but also for the robber bands, and eventually turns into an escape from home into the forest.

“Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter” is one of the best-known works by the famous Swedish children’s writer Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). Her books have been translated into more than 95 languages. Astrid Lindgren received several dozen awards, including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal—the highest international award for children’s writers and book illustrators. She created such legendary, world-famous characters as Pippi Longstocking, Karlsson and Emil of Lönneberga.

“Ronja came about because, living in the city, I greatly missed the fields and the deep forest. It began with my imagining a mountain, and on the mountain a robbers’ castle that suddenly split in two. ‘What kind of people live there?’ I wondered. Aha, one robber family has a daughter, and the other a son. Just like Romeo and Juliet. At first they quarrel and tease each other, but gradually they become friends…” the author once said.

“Ronja is a girl who dares to choose her own path. Although she is very much like her father, she cannot accept his view of the world and stay in his castle; she has to experience for herself what friendship means, what it means to love and to lose. Having escaped from home into freedom, the children not only mature in the forest but also show adults that the only way to become strong is to learn to live together and unite. I think the lessons in Astrid Lindgren’s work are incredibly relevant and important today. Our production of ‘Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter’ is a musical, witty and, at the same time, profound coming-of-age story,” says the production’s director and dramaturgical adapter, Eglė Švedkauskaitė.

The production features a song performed by the boys’ choir of the 4th grade of the “Ąžuoliukas” Music School (artistic director Vytautas Miškinis, choirmaster Daiva Leipuvienė).

*** Children under 4 years of age do not need a ticket, but are not allocated a seat in the auditorium and must sit on the accompanying adult’s lap. (Please provide proof of age at the venue.) ***

Astrid Lindgren rights