CAN YOU WHISTLE, JOHANNA?

"Everyone should have a grandfather in life" the famous Norwegian singer Odd Nordstoga sang. "But why?" Eilif says to Emma. “Yes, because then you get money every time he visits you, and you can go fishing together and he can teach you new hings - and you get cake when you celebrate his birthday”. But Eilif has no grandfather. "We can fix that," Emma says - "I know where grandfathers are."

This is how the story of Emma and Eilif begins. The two children enter an old people's home and there they meet a lonely man who lost his beloved wife Johanna a long time ago. He joins the "mind game" and except the pretense’s that he is in fact Eilif's grandfather. In this way the kids and the old man develop a close friendship and mutual enjoyment. The children get to meet a wise and kind elderly “grandfather-person” from whom they can learn a lot, and the old man gets a new “family” in his late years.

"Can you whistle, Johanna" is based on Ulf Stark's book of the same name. Kompani13 presents it as a puppet show. Here it is played with proportions between people, dolls, masks and rooms, and thus the story of the meeting between Eilif and Nils is created.

The performance discusses the big questions in life: love, friendship, fear, longing, loneliness, death and courage. It deals with interpersonal issues of a universal nature but is most of all a story about two children and an elderly man who develops a friendship across generations.