Nationaltheatret’s 2023 production of If This Is a Man marked a rare staging of Primo Levi’s seminal memoir. Directed by Alan Lucien Øyen and performed by Øystein Røger, the work was presented at Torshovteatret in the round — a stripped-back space that placed the audience inside Levi’s world. With only the essentials — a reclaimed wooden floor and a single candle lit in remembrance — the stage became a stark setting for Levi’s words to resonate.
When Primo Levi’s book If This Is a Man is brought to the theatre stage, it is done with a wise sense of the power of narrative. It is precisely the lack of sentimentality that makes it so powerful.
Øyen worked with Røger to strip away all traces of theatrical illusion, shaping a performance grounded in sincerity. Rather than embodying Levi, Røger became a voice of conscience — a trustworthy witness delivering testimony.
Scenographer Alex Eales, together with Øyen, pared the stage down to the bare minimum. The reclaimed floor carried a sense of history, while the candle burned throughout the performance, an unbroken act of remembrance for those lost. Subtle sound design by Gunnar Innvær underlined the fractures of trauma and fleeting moments of humanity, reinforcing Levi’s central question: what does it mean to be human?
The result was a harrowing and unforgettable evening of theatre, praised for its clarity and restraint, and for reminding audiences of the urgent relevance of Levi’s words in a time of renewed division.
An unvarnished reality that strikes straight into the heart.
Alan Lucien Øyen is simply very good at making theatre.