JACOB HIRDWALL, born 1967, is a Swedish dramatist, stage-director and dramaturge. He has also acted in several stage and television productions. He worked as a dramaturge at Göteborgs Stadsteater in Gothenburg in 1994-1996. He directed “The Dumb Waiter” by Harold Pinter at Göteborgs Stadsteater in 1996. He worked as dramaturge at FolkTeatern in Gothenburg in 1997-1999. He has also worked as a dramaturge at Stockholms Stadsteater in Stockholm 1998-2000. He is currently working as dramaturge at The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden and lives in Stockholm.
Jacob Hirdwall set up ”The Greenhouse”, a network for newly written Swedish plays - which was funded by the organisation ”Culture of the Future” - in 1999-2000 together with three dramatists. At the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden he started ”The Dramatist´s Group” consisting of eight dramatists. Jacob is also engaged as a dramaturge at Dramatikkens Hus (The House of Drama) in Oslo, Norway and collaborates with Jon Fosse among others. In 2008 he started the think-tank The Invisible. He has published three books, "The Undiscovered Country" (2007), "The Invisible" (2008) and "The Measure Theory" (2011).
Jacob Hirdwall has written several stage-plays: ”The Bedmate”, Aarhus Teater, Denmark 2002. ”Self-portraits of Unknown Men”, Swedish Radio 2003. ”Paralysie Gènèrale!” (a play based on texts by Strindberg), The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden/ The PowerStation 2005. Guest-performences in Beijing and Shanghai in 2005. ”The undiscovered country”, National Theatre in Reykjavik, Iceland 2007. A play about genetic research in Iceland. Also performed by the Scandinavian American Theatre Company (SATC) in New York 2011. ”The sparrow of Minsk”, comissioned by The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden in 2006. The play is set in former White Russia, today known as ”Belaurs” and deals partly with the consequences of the accident in the Tjernobyl powerplant in 1986.
Jacob has also written the play "The Emperor Fukushima" about the disaster in the Fukushima reactors 2011. That play was performed at The Royal Dramatic Theatre and also transmited by Swedish radio. For the radio he wrote the short-play "We Are Sorry", a meeting between Rupert Murdoch and the dramatist Dennis Potter. His new play "The Gift of Sirimon" opens in Rosengaard, Malmoe late April 2012. Jacob Hirdwall directed "Someone Is Sitting On The Ving", based on music/texts by Kristina Lugn och Allan Edwall, and that stage-play will tour Sweden early spring 2013. In 2012 he will be directing the play "Yarden" by Kristian Lundberg for the Swedish radio. Jacob is a member of the Writers Guild of Sweden.
Nordiska APS in Copenhagen, Denmark are agents for Jacob Hirdwall's stage-plays: www.nordiska.dk
