Using narrative analysis to create story drama: A model example using Jon Fosse’s fairy tale, The Fiddler Girl.
Stig A. Eriksson
https://doi.org/10.64741/780638qxfhpi
Abstract
In this piece, the author employs narrative analysis inspired by Russian Formalism to explore content and form of Jon Fosse’s illustrated children’s book, The Fiddler Girl [Spelejenta] (2009). Fosse is the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature for 2023. By drawing on the tradition of fairy tales, the analysis examines how themes of empowerment and quest enhance each other within the story. Supplemented by educational drama theory from the legacy of Dorothy Heathcote, and close reading as a main tool, the author presents a practical arts-based workshop example of how a fairy tale can inspire and be transformed into a story drama.
Key words
Jon Fosse, Spelejenta, Dorothy Heathcote, story drama, narrative analysis, Russian formalism.
Introduction
The point of departure of this presentation is a practical workshop devised to address agency and empowerment, the themes of the international Dorothy Heathcote Now Conference at Goldsmiths, University of London, November 2024. The main focus, however, is looking at literature and literature analysis as material for creating (story) drama. The workshop is based on Jon Fosse’s children’s book, Spelejenta (2009) (The Fiddler Girl). It is a literary fairy tale about a clairvoyant little girl, who, with the help of her enchanting fiddle, embarks on a journey to rescue her father. With illustrations by Øyvind Torseter, The Fiddler Girl was first published in 2009 (Winje Agency 2025). It has not been printed in English, so the text is translated by the present author for the workshop. I conducted a first version of the workshop at the 10th IDEA World Congress in Beijing, July 2024.[1] For that context, I made a Chinese translation with the assistance of my Chinese colleague, Dr. Sisi Zheng. Former MA-student Huang Ge assisted ‘on the floor’ and translated during the execution of the workshop. Fosse is Norwegian Nobel prize laureate in literature 2023. Øyvind Torseter is an award winning Norwegian visual artist, illustrator and author.
Research questions
In the process of devising, structuring, and commenting on the ensuing workshop on The Fiddler Girl, I have posed three research questions: ‘How can narrative analysis be employed to identify story structures, character functions and form registers in the tale?’ ‘How are elements from the folkloristic fairy tale tradition applied by Fosse in his tale?’ and ‘How can this be applied in creating a story drama?’ However, before embarking on that, it is relevant to relate my interest in literature and drama to examples from Heathcote’s work in this area.
Heathcote and story work
Heathcote develops on several occasions drama from literature. Well-known examples are her approach to ‘big’ human and social issues in John Bunyan’s text Pilgrim’s Progress, captured in the video Making Progress (1971), and her two projects documented in the booklet Drama as Context (1980). The one deploys Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem The Ozymandias Saga as a way in to look at implications of ‘conquest’. The other explores Bertolt Brecht’s play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, as both a piece of text study and an analysis of drama teacher facilitation. In these examples, it becomes evident how Heathcote is dominantly using devices of distancing as poetic and pedagogic properties and thus also her affinity with the aesthetics of Brecht. This is not a theme in the article but something that I have explored in other contexts, particularly in Distancing at Close Range (Eriksson 2009).
In one of Heathcote’s later articles, ‘Stories as contexts in mantle of the expert’ ([2007] 2015), she reflects on how to use the illustrated children’s book The Crane by Reiner Zimnik in the context of an enterprise drama. In another of her later projects: ‘Approaching Hamlet’ ([2009] 2015), she relates a number of drama conventions, to open up interpretations for a study of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Whilst Heathcote in the latter shares a list of strategies ‘for bringing literature to life’ (O’Neill 2015: 165), in the former she raises concerns of how to respect the story’s own integrity when utilised in a Mantle of the Expert setting (Heathcote 2015: 126 ff). This respect is also a priority in my treatment of Fosse’s text.
Heathcote’s teachings have been likened to that of a master/apprentice model (Hesten 2013: 80). I have been fortunate to partake in many encounters with Heathcote – sometimes together with my students. Heathcote was never afraid to demonstrate her unique teaching style ‘live’. As Sandra Hesten points out, master/apprentice is a model that bears likeness with an oral tradition familiar from storytelling,
for example, a problem to be solved … might derive from a myth, legend or folktale (ibid.).
In The Fiddler Girl, the main character is indeed confronted with problems to be solved, human ones as well as the forces of nature.
The fictional world is full of truth and surprise (ibid.).
It provides food for drama – and breeds empowerment and agency.
Heathcote and empowerment
A central dimension of Heathcote’s work revolves around empowerment. Hesten, who first set up the Dorothy Heathcote Archive through her doctoral dissertation, lists empowerment among the central concepts of Heathcote’s oeuvre (Hesten 1994: 1). In Hesten’s dissertation, there are many cross references to empowerment (op.cit.: 34, footnote 67). O’Neill, who in two editions (1984, 2015) has edited collected writings by Heathcote, simply characterises Heathcote as a visionary of “active, empowering and authentic education” (2015: 6). In the present context, empowerment is primarily treated as a theme in Fosse’s fairy tale text.
Literature as a starting point
I like to use literature as starting point for drama. Literature and drama are cousins. First of all, I value the aesthetic quality emanating from a good text. It has already a given poetic ambience; narration and dialogue are crafted; and in the present context even with visuals, ready to be used and experienced. Secondly, it offers structure and hot trails (Heggstad and Heggstad 2022: 161)[2]. The hot trails concept aligns with using drama not just to teach literature, but to create work that feels relevant and engaging, and allows for ideas from the participants as it develops. Still, within the given narrative structure, even curriculum contents can become accommodated. Also, it is motivating to introduce a piece of children’s literature that is not known by most participants and readers beforehand. This makes the ensuing analytical methodology more meaningful. Furthermore, the fact that it is created by contemporary artists from my home country adds a personal touch.
Research approach
The article employs a research approach that is concerned with the intersection of literature and educational drama through exemplification (like in case study, or a model method[3]). The exemplary approach to arts research is inspired by the Norwegian project “out from the concrete” (Nyrnes 2008). It belongs to a tradition of arts pedagogy research, in which the concrete example has a main focus. Example-based research is also featured in Drama at the Hearth of English (Bryer et al. 2024). It is an inspiring example how the intersection of drama and literature facilitates shared engagement and understanding of each area.
I have chosen elements of both narrative analysis and drama-based pedagogy as my theory base. The former is inspired by elements in the writings of the Swedish university lecturer Göran Lindström (1969) and the North-American literary theorist Peter Brooks (1984). Although working completely independently from each other, both scholars occupy themselves with narrative analysis reminiscent of uses found in Russian formalism. This school of thought emphasises close reading and identification of literary devices and form properties in the literary text – functions that I have found useful for finding focus and structure in my own drama work (Eriksson 2006 and 2024). There is currently a renewed interest in Russian formalism in contemporary literary studies.[4] The latter draws on the Dorothy Heathcote’s legacy.[5] Given that the workshop belongs to the context of a Dorothy Heathcote Now Conference, references to Heathcote’s work pertaining to the intersection of literature and drama, and to other sources influenced by her, belongs to my theoretical grounding.
In addition, my analyses are brought in relation to literary fairy tale and folk tale. Fosse’s text is obviously a literary fairytale, but as
a tale about a girl who, with the help of her fiddle, makes mountains open up and the sea retreat (Seiness 2009: 291),
comparison with folk tale is relevant. Analysing the genre of fairy tale aligns with the tradition of narratology and its interest in story structures and character functions. Vladimir Propp, in his well-known Morphology of the Folktale (2003), has established a series of recognisable narratological patterns or recurring form registers pertaining to character functions, some of which I shall identify in Fosse’s story. For this purpose, the concept of story drama is relevant.
Story drama
If I were to choose any of Heathcote’s ‘contexts for active learning’ (Heathcote 2002: 5) for my workshop, model 1 – drama used to explore people, would likely be the best fit. I am attracted to the experiential possibilities expressed in this model: that drama involves
[people’s] behaviour, their circumstances, their responses to events which affect them (ibid.).
It contains the possibility of creative resilience, which is so needed in our time. Particularly pertinent to the workshop rings point 4 in the model:
It will always require some modification of behaviour so that the fiction isn’t mixed up with the usual way people behave. It needs some selectivity, however limited (ibid.).
This is a quality often imbedded in narratives. Just like drama, fairy tale is a genre of analogy. Both offer selected ‘worlds’ of people’s behaviour. They highlight forms of similarity between imaginary world and actual living, for example by creating larger-than-life events that help understanding real-life situations, or can simply generate associations to own lives.
While the context of a given story may be fantastical, the issues are real, and the problems faced are similar to those of many young readers. The analogies and the metaphors used by the authors of such fiction allow readers safe mirrors in which to examine their concerns (Booth 1992: 18).
For both genres it is a question of selection and interpretation of how to explore and investigate the story’s inherent themes and motifs.
The fiddler-girl-workshop is devised as story drama, which I perceive is a form of process drama, only more bound by the composition of the tale than if developed more associatively and less structured from a more open pre-text (O’Neill 1995: 19-27, 33-44; Taylor 1995: 14-15). Admittedly, according to Cecily O’Neill, in a story drama approach
the story or picture book is used as a source of understanding, not as a subject for adaptation or elaboration (O’Neill 1995: 40).
She explains that in this form there is usually “no attempt to reenact the narrative” and that “students’ decisions and responses determine the development of the event” (op.cit: 41). However, the boundaries are not clear cut. In fact, O’Neill is herself a pioneer in using literature as a starting point for process drama. A famous example of exploring folk tale and myth is her workshop The Seal Wife, which has created long lasting impact and debate (O’Neill 1995: 86-90; Taylor 1995: 15-32; Fletcher 1995; Coleman 2022).
O’Neill attributes (1995: 40) the role of leading exponent of the story drama genre to the Canadian drama-in-education pioneer, David Booth, a view that has been followed up by Philip Taylor (1995). However, a decade before process drama was introduced as a term in the field of educational drama (O’Toole 1990, Haseman 1991), Booth had already coined story drama (Booth 1980). In his 1978 Ph.D. dissertation, Booth laid the foundations of this process-oriented approach, which he initially called ‘story enactment’ (1978: 75, 91) [6]. He noted that:
In the interchange between drama and text, the child meets a wide range of cultural symbols. The drama must help the child in finding levels of meaning in those symbols. It must elaborate upon the given facts to find the implicit truths, rather than simply be a retelling of the events. The enacting of the text is one way of making explicit much of what is implicit. Enacting is reliving what has happened, but turning it into an event that happens as it is spoken about (Booth 1978: 104).
From Booth’s definitions and descriptions in subsequent publications (e.g.1990: 28, 1994: 12), story drama is not about dramatisation in a conventional sense but about improvised roleplay for dramatic exploration and meaning-making in interaction with the story – much as is the case in process drama as well. My fiddler-girl-drama includes performative parts using the text, but also inserted drama conventions or other distancing devices allowing for discovery, articulation and sustenance of fictional roles and situations characteristic of process drama (see O’Neill 1995: xvi). So, because much weight is placed on actually experiencing the author’s text as part of the explorative process, the story becomes more than a pre-text (O’Neill 1995, Taylor 1995). The core narrative arc serves as the framework, making story drama an appropriate designation. I regard it as a particular form of process drama.
My version even incorporates aspects of chamber theatre, a genre described by Heathcote as suitable
to induct the participants to deep reading of the literary material (Heathcote 2015: 67).
Because the participants are likely unfamiliar with Fosse’s text, it feels important that it be first explored and experienced ‘as is’. This means more than applying it as pre-text. But it also means more than to ‘dramatise’ it. In any case, I want to respect the originality of the story, to explore its form and textual expression. Heathcote points out that “…every tale is unique. It exists to fulfil itself” (2015: 131). That is the base of the present workshop.
Narrative analysis
It is important to regard the proposed model of analysis as nothing more than a tool box, because the suggested procedure must not be used unbendingly. But in order to discover the uniqueness of a narrative, and what potentials it offers for story drama, it requires a number of close readings to become familiar with it. Lindström (1969) recommends to look at it from the point of view of: 1) Material: What is it about? 2) Form: How is it composed? 3) Background: How did it come about? Point 1 contains the features of: story, motif, theme, and milieu. Point 2 consists of: plot, people depiction, language and style, symbols. Point 3 relates to background information about author and illustrator. In the analysis presented in charts 1 and 2, these features are explained and exemplified from the context of The Fiddler Girl. Chart 3 contains all sequences of Fosse’s text alongside the description of the actual workshop – with my comments pertaining to poetic or dramaturgical choices of the work ‘on the floor’.
Although Lindström’s point of departure is a model for analysing drama, it is useful for other narratives as well, like short story (Eriksson 2024), play (Eriksson 2022) and in this case: fairy tale. Based on an intention of quick reference, I have (below) constructed the two first charts as an overview of available tools in a narrative analysis. It is productive to distinguish between story/fabula and plot/syuzhet in the same way as practised in Russian formalism, an approach also inspired by Brooks (1984: 12-13, 24-25). In English, plot frequently covers both the syuzhet and fabula concepts. But that combination closes off analytical opportunities to discover analogies and inspirations for new stories. Through narrative analysis, I have found the distinction between story and plot to be very useful for a drama teacher (Eriksson 2006). For example, in formulating the fabula of a play, novel or a tale, the result is a pre-text (O’Neill 1995) that can inspire the making of a new drama. In the fabula of any authored play, there is a productive pre-text for a process drama, which means that drama teachers have a vast store room – copia – from which new dramatic material can be created.
Material
The four upper fields of this chart delineate the defining features of the four aspects of point 1: ‘What is the narrative about’. The middle ones in italics are suggestions of how the features can be applied to The Fiddle Girl. The four bottom fields provide supplementary comments.
| Story / Fabula | Motifs | Theme | Milieu |
| The fabula is a general résumé of what the narrative is about, i.e., rendition of the course of events as it could happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime; chronologically told without anchoring to specific individuals in a particular environment. | Recurring typical situations that can be derived from the story, still without any connection to specific individuals and environments. | The basic idea or core concept of the story. It is usually formulated as an abstract idea from interpretation of what fabula and motifs concretely illustrate. Sometimes, it can be explicitly expressed in the text. | The environment of the narrative. What do we learn about the characters in the story? Where and when does the action take place? Milieu includes information about: PersonsPlaceTime |
| A little girl perceives that her father is stranded on a skerry. She sets out to rescue him, and after many challenges, she succeeds. | *A daughter’s perilous quest to save her father. * A lone child’s search for an absent parent. * Someone crossing obstacles to reach a loved one. * The seer. Person with ability to see beyond the ordinary. | *Quest. *Agency and empowerment. *Love for a parent. *Longing for connection. *Willingness to sacrifice. *The power of art. *Magic and the extraordinary. | *A little girl. *Her father. *They live in a farmhouse with a courtyard – alone. *It is on a west coast facing an ocean. *Rough rocky and boggy landscape. *It takes place ‘once upon a time’. |
| By schematising the action, the fabula aims at bringing out something universal and typical. It offers an overview of what it is about, but it also constitutes an outline that can be compared with other works, or a pre-text for another drama. | Schematic elements. Motifs are universal or type situations, something to be recognised across time and space. They are often situations of conflict or contrast. They can also inspire new material. | Theme, too, contains an element of generalisation, because it involves ‘the meaning’ of the story, which has to do with individual views, like ‘stance’, mindset’, ‘outlook’. Theme is based on interpretation. Often it is connected to symbols or key lines. | Here we are interested in more concrete descriptions than the universal or the general. (For a Norwegian reader, language and nature description indicate a western Norwegian setting). |
Chart 1
Form
The four upper columns delineate the defining features of the four aspects of point 2: ‘How is the narrative composed?’ The middle ones in italics describe how the features are applied to The Fiddle Girl. The four bottom fields provide supplementary comments.
| Plot / Suyzhet | People depiction | Language and style | Symbols |
| A summary overview of the course of events, i.e., the action in the order presented in the text. The plot has an external structure (sequences, scenes, episodes, i.e., how the action is arranged), but also an internal structure (exposition, building tension, turning point, conclusion). Can the final line possibly suggest an interpretation of the text as a whole? | Based on facts and data about people and milieu emerging from the material analysis. A person may be characterised through direct description of appearance and behaviour (in the text or through dialogue), or through indirect description (what the person says about oneself, the relation between what the person says and does, or what other people say about the person). | Includes stylistic features such as sentence structure, word choice, rhythm, language patterns, imagery; also how dialogue conveys facts about the plot (characters, space, time) or characterise persons; use of parallelism and leitmotif (certain words, objects, or events recur through the course of the plot); or irony (something is said or done in unexpected manner, giving it a double meaning). | Relates to the determination of the theme. Now the question is: how is it expressed? Is there any direct support in the text for the theme formulation, or is the theme more implicit and determined through symbols (something a person, an object, or an event represents or ‘means’ beyond itself)? In this tale, evidently also the illustrator’s depictions contain symbolic clues and meanings. |
| The little fiddler girl has the special gift of being a seer. One day, when holding her hand up in front of her eyes, she sees that her father has been shipwrecked on an islet in the ocean. She leaves the house and ventures out into rough terrain to find and comfort him, bringing with her only her fiddle. In her quest, she encounters three seemingly unsurmountable hindrances: a steep mountain, a deep bog and the vast ocean. With the help of her clairvoyant abilities and the fiddle with which she plays a most beautiful tune that defeats all hindrances, she rescues and reunites with her father and brings him back into the house. | *The story has only two figures: the fiddler girl and her father. *She is ‘a little girl’, age not mentioned, but the drawings suggest 5-8 years. * She has the ability that when she holds one hand up in front of her eyes, she can see through the hand, and if she looks for something specific, she can often see it. *She also possesses the gift to play enchanting music that makes wonders. *He owns a boat with a mast. *His age and occupation is not mentioned. The drawings suggests a man in his thirties. *He has run aground, and sits on a rock, wet, forlorn and miserable. *We hear of no other figures in the story. | *The quest is portrayed in simple language resonant of folk tale poetics. *Variation and repetition in the telling of the tale – parallelism – create rhythm and mood. *Together with the depictions, the words create scenography. *Dialogue is very scarce but when used, it is evocative. *Inner monologue: The girl wonders aloud about the challenges she faces – and when her thoughts are given in third person form, the inner monologue produces an epic theatre effect. *Direct dialogue happens only twice: at the first reunion, and when arriving home. The concise form of expression is typical of Fosse. *Leitmotif: Fiddler girl playing her tune. | *The girl produces music that moves mountains. It gives her agency and empowerment. *In almost all the drawings, the fiddle or the fiddle case is visibly present. *The girl’s quest represents a mission involving challenges that activates own development. * The natural elements: mountain, bog and the ocean are metaphors of hardships to be overcome to become empowered. *The shipwreck may be a symbol of the father’s position: he has foundered. *The house symbol: The girl departs “out of” the house and returns “into” the house. The place of connection. * Journey full circle. *The rule of three in folk tales. |
| The plot relates to the story but now the focus is on the author’s shaping of the material. It is more concretely “what happens” than a general fabula account. In this particular story, there is no pre-history imbedded in the narrative; so there is much coincidence between fabula and syuzhet. | I prefer the term ‘figure’ before character. It is also a better term in story drama/process drama in which people are figures with attitudes and abilities, rather than characters with a developed persona. People depiction also includes data that the text – and the illustrations – express, like age and physical appearance. | Fosse’s use of such stylistic features, provides insight into the girl’s motivations and anxieties, which is something the drama teacher can develop further in the drama. The fiddler girl’s final line: “I’m just playing”, may possibly be taken as ‘dramatic irony’. It provides fodder for drama discussion. So does the father’s state of affairs. | In Norwegian folklore the fiddle is the instrument for magic, enchantment and supernatural elements. In this respect the fiddle is central in many folktales in Norway. Particularly the Hardanger fiddle (Hardingfele) is known from western Norway and carry deep cultural roots. Fosse comes from Ulvik in Hardanger. |
Chart 2
The analyses in these two charts form the backbone of the workshop devised and presented in chart 3, and exemplify how main features of the analyses are applied in practice. It should be noted that the features are conceived as elements in a toolbox; it is not the intention that all of them must be used in practice. But I have found them functional in my own planning and structuring of the workshop. In fact, it has been productive in my practice both as a lecturer in drama education and as a drama practitioner to build a store room of strategies: a copia (from Latin, meaning ‘abundance’ or ‘plenty’). In rhetorical theory – belonging to the afore mentioned narrative analysis tradition – copia refers to an abundance of expression or ideas (Nyrnes 2002: 162-217). It carries a connotation of creativity, richness, and versatility in its application. In the present context, my copia comprises a variety of analytical categories and a set of terminologies, as well as a richness in poetic devices at our disposal when creating a story drama from an already authored narrative. To the belongings of a drama teacher’s copia, also a supply of varied of dramatic conventions (Neelands and Goode 2015, Heathcote 1984b) are included, together with a theoretical grounding.
The aim group of the present example are teachers and teacher students. Application of the material for other target groups will be dependent on readers’ own priorities and context. In my opinion this material can be used with a wide range of age groups and settings.
Background (Point 3: How did it come about?)
Fosse is currently one of Norway’s most productive authors, translated to more than 50 languages (NORLA 2025). The Nobel Committee awarded Fosse the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023 with the justification: “for his innovative dramas and prose that give voice to the unspeakable” (The Nobel Prize 2023). The committee highlighted his ability to express profound human emotions through a radical reduction of language and dramatic action, marking him as a significant modern theatre innovator. Although mostly known for his writings for adults, works for children also belong to Fosse’s portfolio. In the background article for a production of the tale of the fiddler girl offered by The Norwegian Theatre, it says that “Fosse treats the child on par with his adult characters, with great respect and without excess embellishment” (DNT 2015). To my knowledge, The Fiddler Girl has been transferred to the stage in three different productions: DNT 2015, DKS 2022, DVT 2023. I have not seen any of these productions. My own interest in The Fiddler Girl has been spurred by the book itself with Torseter’s evocative illustrations. They contribute strongly to bring the girl’s journey to life. Most illustrations are in gilded tones and subtle colour shifts enhances the visual experience, emphasising the magical quality of the story. Torseter uses a collage technique, combining various materials like paper, foil and cardboard (Sævareid 2010). Torseter is a renowned Norwegian artist, illustrator, and writer. He is celebrated for his innovative work in children’s literature, comics, and visual storytelling. Torseter have earned prestigious awards, like the Bologna Ragazzi Award and the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize.
Workshop
 |  |
 |  |
Depictions for the workshop. The colour drawing is by Torseter. The three others I have created from other sources.
Chart 3: Workshop description. Text sequences in translation by me
| Workshop start: Everyone in a circle. On the floor: A long strip of brown paper. Glued onto it is an A3 size colour picture of the fiddler girl in her room. Felt pens available. On the left of the picture, the participants are first invited to write: “What do you see?” (denotatively). After a few minutes, to the right of the picture: “What are your impressions of her?” (connotatively). Facilitator: “Jon Fosse hardly ever uses character names; his characters are kind of generic; Fosse is looking for the more universally human. In the present story it is a girl and her father. We will find out that he is in trouble, and that she will be his helper. She has to set out on a journey, to undertake a quest, in which she has to overcome three hardships – which is often a motif in folk tale. Fosse’s story is a literary fairy tale, inspired by the folk tale structure.” Task: In pairs, participants will try to push their partners to one side of the room. Then try to pull partners to the other side of the room. Back in circle: Look at a point at the other side of the room. Try to get there by crossing the middle. “Swim” gently through the crowd. Metaphors: The 3 hindrances: Mountain (pushing), bog (pulling), ocean (swimming). | |
| 1. Once upon a time there was a little girl, a little fiddler girl, who had it so that when she held one hand up in front of her eyes, then she could see through the hand, and if she then looked for something specific, then she could see it, not always, but often. | Facilitator narrates. |
| Story / fabula | Facilitator conveys. |
| Inner monologues: Each participant receives a strip of paper with one of the girl’s lines from the story. Everyone walks across the room, constantly changing directions whilst reading aloud the line to oneself. “Stop occasionally, try another way of saying your line and resume the walking. After a while: Now address someone with your line and listen to the other’s line”. (Facilitator has prepared the lines from excerpts below). | The fragments of the girl’s internal thoughts in no linear order are intended to create foreshadowing as well as wondering; ‘making strange device’ (Eriksson, 2009, 2024). |
| Imagining: “STOP. Put one hand over your eyes. Imagine a place and that you can see something. What do you see?” | Sharing. |
| On the sheet of brown paper, the facilitator glues on to it two more colour pictures: a) the girl packing her fiddle into the case—– “She’s getting ready for her quest”, and b) leaving the house —-“And we know that she is a seer”. [These pictures cannot be reprinted here. But facilitator can ask participants to create them as still images (Neelands and Goode 2015: 28)] | The quest theme, filled with a potential of agency and empowerment. The seer motif: From Greek classic literature it reminds us of Kassandra (in The Oresteia), Teiresias (in King Oedipus) or Calchas in the Iliad). |
| 2. She raised her hand in front of her eyes, and she saw, and then she saw her father sitting on a rock by a shore, and she saw the bow of his boat lying just above the water, and she saw the mast of her father’s boat peeking out from the sea. Her father sat there wet on a rock by the shore and looked so forlorn, she thought, that he surely could use some company, and, she knew, her father loved to hear her play, so she took her fiddle and bow and placed them in their case and then she stepped out of the house where she and her father lived. | Facilitator asks the participants again to put a hand over their eyes – and narrates. |
| Vision: “The father has foundered.” By using ‘foundered’, the facilitator suggests more than just a literal shipwreck—maybe emotional turmoil or personal struggle. | To add a layer of tension and melancholy. |
| The quest starts. Facilitator shows a drawing of a boat and a drawing of house keys. Places the boat in the far end of the room (by some turned around chairs), representing WEST; and the keys in the other (by an ordered square of chairs): EAST. | A sketchy but signed scenography. Metaphors of: Skerry. Home. |
| Sightings and navigations: Facilitator asks participants to stand in the form of a square in the middle of the room, facing the same way, first towards NORTH. Participants will put their hands over their eyes and listen to the narrator. By the sound of a small bell, all simultaneously will turn LEFT twice. By the next sound of the bell, all simultaneously turn LEFT once. At the third sound of the bell, all again turn LEFT twice, facing the skerry (boat) in the WEST. | North, south, east – and west. The four cardinal directions. Metaphors for finding orientations in life and can also signify natural cycles. |
| 3. Well out in the yard, she stopped and raised her hand in front of her eyes, she looked north, but no father was to be seen, (bell twice) she turned and she looked south, and no father was to be seen, (bell once) and then she turned east, and even there was no father to be seen. (bell twice) Then, the little fiddler girl turned with her hand in front of her eyes and looked west, and then, then she could see her father sitting there on the rock by the shore. | Facilitator narrates, and signals with the bell. |
| Everyone in the circle. Sharing of brief comments or reactions. | |
| Facilitator relates that the journey presents challenges: A steep mountain cliff (adds colour picture from the book onto the brown sheet), a deep bog (colour picture), a wide ocean (colour picture). “Every journey—whether physical or metaphorical—comes with its share of obstacles, and for opportunities for agency and empowerment. The girl finds solutions…”. | |
| Division of participants into 3 groups: mountain, bog, ocean. Text excerpts and lines for the 3 groups. Each group will prepare a telling of “their” part of the tale. | |
| Group 1, using text excerpts 4 and 6, including lines a-e, creates the mountain and how the girl gets through it. After 4, there is a narration sequence (5) by the facilitator. | |
| 4. And then she walked west, with the fiddle case in her hand, now and then she raised her hand in front of her eyes and saw her father, and now and then she lowered her hand from her eyes and looked toward the terrain she was crossing, at first, it was a field, but now she had reached a landscape with knolls and heather and not much else. The little fiddler girl walked on the best she could, trying to hurry, but no matter how fast she walked, it didn’t seem fast enough. She raises her hand in front of her eyes, and again she sees her father sitting there on the rock by the shore, wet and forlorn he seems to be, so now she has to hurry even more, she thinks, and she stops and looks up, and before her she sees a steep mountain wall, a sheer cliff it seems to be. | Groups 2 and 3 are audience when group 1 presents the dramatisation. The group makes decision how the lines are to be integrated in presentation. Performance mode. Facilitator and participant interaction. |
| 3 LINES: a-c. | |
| “No, oh no,” said the little fiddler girl. “I seem unable to move forward,” she said. “A mountain stands between me and my father,” she said. | Tension building. |
| 5. And then the little girl sat down on a rock and seeking solace she took out her fiddle and played the saddest and most beautiful tune that anyone could ever have heard. Fiddle tune. (First 56 sec. of Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa playing “Budeiene på Vikafjell”: https://youtu.be/QdC363d8jNs ) | Facilitator asks everyone to close their eyes, narrates part 5 and then starts the music. Hardanger fiddle. |
| 6. And then she looked up and then she saw that the mountain had opened up, as a rift had formed in the rock and the fiddler girl placed her fiddle and bow in the fiddle case and then she stepped into the mountain and through the rift. | Group 1 continues. First turning point. |
| 2 LINES: d-e. | |
| “This was strange,” she said. “That such a thing is possible,” she said. | |
| Group 2, using text excerpts 7-9, including lines f-j and k-l, creates the bog and the girl’s crossing. Facilitator narrates sequence 10 and plays the recorded fiddle tune within it. | |
| 7. And the little fiddler girl came out of the mountain and she raised her hand in front of her eyes and she looked around, there was no father to be seen, not there either – nor there – but there, over the bog, there he was to be seen and then she took her hand away from her eyes and began to walk across the bog. | Same procedures as for group 1. |
| 8. But the bog was long, endlessly long, and heavy it was to walk, because one foot would constantly sink deep into the soggy soil, and the other foot would constantly sink deep, and wet and dirty her trousers had become, and wet and cold she had become. | |
| 5 LINES: f-j. | |
| “No, this was unpleasant,” she said. “Oh, how dirty and wet I am,” she said. “If only I could get across this awful bog soon,” she said. “I seem to be stuck,” she said. “I need to get free,” she said. | Tension building. |
| 9. And she tried everything she could to get her foot loose, but then the other foot went down into the wet soil too, and she stood there with both feet stuck. | |
| 2 LINES: k-l. | |
| “What should I do now?” she said. “What can I possibly do?” she said. | Additional tension. |
| 10. And she didn’t really know what she could do, and then the little fiddler girl opened her fiddle case and took out her fiddle and the bow and then she began to play the saddest and most beautiful tune again. Fiddle tune. First she played it once, and then she played it once more, and just as beautifully she played as before, only this time there was also fear in her playing – and then she suddenly stood there on dry ground. | Facilitator asks everyone to close their eyes and listen. Second turning point. |
| Group 3, using text excerpts 11-12 + 14, including lines m-o, creates the ocean in front of the girl and how it eventually recedes. After 12, a sequence (13) by the facilitator. | |
| 11. And she sees that in front of her the ocean appears, vast and immense, and she lifts her hand again to her eyes and she sees her father sitting there on the rock by the shore and he looks so wet and miserable, out on a skerry to the west in the ocean that’s where her father sits, she sees that, and she is not there, but on a seashore on land west towards the ocean. | Same procedures as above. |
| 3 LINES: m-o. | |
| “No, this won’t do,” said the little fiddler girl. “I can’t get out to my father without a boat,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do,” she said. | Tension building. |
| 12. And then the little fiddler girl sat down on a rock there by the shore and her eyes became wet and cold it was and now it seemed to be getting dark, and darkness was something she had never liked, because in the dark she could see nothing, it didn’t even help to hold her hand in front of her eyes, there was nothing to see no matter what, thought the little fiddler girl. | Her gifted sight fails her in darkness. New tension. |
| 13. And once again, she opened the fiddle case and took out her fiddle and bow, and again she played her finest tune, the finest tune anyone could have heard. She played so beautifully that, for once, even she herself thought it was beautiful to hear. Fiddle tune. | Facilitator asks everyone to close their eyes and listen. |
| 14. Once she played the tune, once again she played the tune, and then once again. And then she looked up. And she saw that the ocean had pulled back, and there was a strip of dry sand from the shore where she was to the skerry where she had seen that her father was. And the little fiddler girl did not understand what had happened, but she started to walk on the dry bottom towards the skerry, with the sea standing like walls on either side of her, but it was dry and easy to walk where she went and the fiddler girl raised her hand in front of her eyes and saw her father sitting there on the rock by the shore, but now quite close. | The sea splitting in two alludes to Moses parting the Red Sea (The Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 14.) Last and main turning point. |
| Facilitator: “She has bridged the gap between the mundane and the magical”. | A common feature in folk tale. |
| Convention: ‘Still image’. Facilitator invites volunteers to create a) an image of the father alone on the skerry, b) the girl in front of the ocean. To crystallise the moment when they catch each other’s eyes – from a far distance. | Neelands and Goode (2015: 28). |
| Convention: ‘Thought corridor’. Facilitator invites everyone to join the walls of the ocean to create one big corridor. Starting from the still image, the girl slowly walks down the corridor towards the father. As she passes by, each person of the corridor voices a thought, opinion, encouragement during her walk towards her father. | To reflect her doubts, conflicts, motivations. Also referred to as ‘Conscience alley’ or ‘Thought tunnel’ (Baldwin 2018). |
| Scene and frame: “When she has arrived, both come to life, and we hear the lines. Then FREEZE”. | |
| LINES: p-q. | |
| “No, that you could find me,” says the father.“Yes,” says the little fiddler girl. “I don’t quite know how I managed it,” she says. | |
| Facilitator asks everyone to form a half circle. The freeze image of the encounter of the girl and the father placed in the opening. Convention: ‘effigy’. They can be commented on, looked at from different angles, and sculptured afresh to explore different perspectives of reunion. | Heathcote (1984b: 166, point 3). |
| Convention: ‘Thought-tracking’ with a twist: “listen to what he/she thought but did not say”. Participants are invited, one at the time, to walk up behind one of the characters, place a hand on his/her shoulder and speak aloud a thought in his/her head at that moment in time. | Neelands and Goode (2015: 138). The idea of “what is thought but not said” aligns with Brecht’s Verfremdung device in epic theatre, for example in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht 1971: 169). |
| Facilitator asks everyone to sit on the floor, close their eyes and to listen. | |
| 15. And then they start walking back. | Facilitator narrates the rest of the story (15, 16), and the two final lines. |
| 16. And before they were to cross the vast bog, the little fiddler girl played her tune, and across the bog the dry path appeared again, and as they reached the high mountain with the steep cliff, the fiddler girl played and the mountain opened up and they walked safely through the rift, hand in hand, over the knolls and the heather, and across the field, and finally they went into the house where the little fiddler girl and her father lived. | |
| 2 LINES: r-s. | |
| “No one can play like you,” said the father. “I’m just playing,” replied the little fiddler girl. | Agency and empowerment. See below. |
| After the conclusion of the narration, facilitator adds to the brown sheet two more colour pictures from the book: a) The father embracing the girl, b) Both back in their house. [Or created as still images]. Facilitator invites comments, opinions and reflections about the actual experience. | |
| Analysis of material: | Story. Themes. Motifs. |
| Analysis of form: | Plot. Fairy tale structure. |
| Possible follow-ups: The situation of the father. Why did he leave the house? The missing / absent mother. Why is she not mentioned?More about the girl. How is it to be her?The girl’s quest as a rite-of-passage experience. Can be explored through conventions like: ‘Collective interview’, ‘Diary/message’, ‘A day in the life’, ‘Gossip circle’ ‘Gestalt’, or the dramatic convention of ‘the confidant’. | (Clark et al. 1997: 84-94). (Neelands and Goode 2015: 12, 17, 37, 42, 119). ‘Confidant’ – serves as a trusted friend or adviser. |
Empowerment and agency as ‘quest’
Features of agency and empowerment are identified in the narrative analysis and are clearly present in Fosse’s fairy tale. Even though they are not explicitly treated as focus objectives in the workshop, they are concretely embedded in the idea of the quest. It can be described in qualitative terms by its thematic, emotional, and symbolic dimensions: the fiddler girl’s quest embodies the pursuit of a tangible goal: to find her father, which at the same time represents the more intangible goal of self-discovery, which is expressed modestly and simply, so characteristic of Fosse:
’No, that you could find me’, says the father. ‘Yes’, says the little fiddler girl. ‘I don’t quite know how I managed it’, she says.
But by this accomplishment, she has archetypically become a hero, has overcome challenges, and undergone a transformation. During the quest, she has lived through emotional experiences of hope, fear, determination, triumph – emotions that create depth and drive development of character. In this sense, the quest can be said to symbolise acquisition of deeper human experiences, such as finding purpose, connection, identity. If we view the quest not just as a narrative device but as a metaphor for life challenges, it represents an empowering journey towards agency. But again, typical of Fosse, the girl’s agency is expressed low-key, through the almost prosaic dialogue with her father that generates a poetic ambience in its very simplicity:
’No one can play like you’, said the father. ‘I’m just playing’, replied the little fiddler girl.
Brief note on poetics
By poetics, I mean the style, nature and form elements of the workshop: its aesthetic elements. Broadly speaking, the workshop is conceived and facilitated inspired by elements of Brecht’s epic theatre style, which aligns well with Heathcote’s way of working (Eriksson 2009). The structure is episodic; it is built up around epic (narrative) elements; situation-oriented, not character based; it contains poetic distancing devises, and largely realised in a stylised form. Since this is likely the participants’ first encounter with Fosse’s text, I want them to experience it in its entirety within a dramatic framework. This involves blending narration with dramatic presentation, allowing for open possibilities in how each group can interpret and share content with the plenary group. And for the key moments of reunion between the father and the girl, the participants are invited through the convention of thought-tracking to explore impressions of the encounter, and just to listen in to the facilitator’s telling of the return to home, rather than enter into discussion. All through the workshop I try to work towards “innerstanding” (Hesten 1994: 83)[7] the tale, rather than passing on the full analysis of it. The narrative analysis is important for facilitator planning. But during the actual realisation of the work, the ambition is to preserve the poetic ambiance that I associate with Fosse’s simple and grounded storytelling. So I largely refrain from issue-discussions during the facilitation of the workshop.
In a potential follow-up of the workshop, with participants now familiar with the main events of the tale, I have indicated at the bottom of chart 3, a list of new possibilities for exploration. However, that will mean a significant gearshift that will take us into new territory. There are ample opportunities for the drama teacher to look more closely at such themes, or other hot trails coming from the participants.
I devised the workshop for the adult participants at the Dorothy Heathcote Now Conference, 2024. However, the workshop can be tailored to different age groups or contexts, too.
Conclusion
In the beginning of the article, I posed three research questions: “How can narrative analysis be employed to identify story structures, character functions and form registers in the tale? “How are elements from the folkloristic fairy tale tradition applied by Fosse in his tale?” and “How can this be applied in creating a story drama?” In answering the questions, I have used terminology and features of narrative analysis as theory base. I have investigated aspects of material, form and background, and highlighted key concepts such as the distinction between story and plot and other literary devices, including how elements from folk tale tradition resonate in the tale. In addition, I have related how such aspects can be applied in creating a story drama/process drama workshop based on literature, connected it to discussion of relevant educational drama theory, and devised a concrete arts-pedagogical example.
In the workshop, I have used both the text and depictions from the book to create embodied experiences around obstacles, dilemmas, and solutions that the main character are faced with in her quest of getting through to her father – somewhat like a figure from a traditional fairy tale. By using combinations of narration, listening to text sequences, watching parts of the original text being enacted by other participants, and incorporating drama conventions, I have attempted both to examine and to find new forms to experience the story. In short, through various ways of animating the text (Heathcote 2015: 67-69), I contend that a text-based approach can be well accommodated within the genre of story drama/process drama. There is still room for improvisation, and the dramatic enactment becomes enriched by enhanced aesthetic quality when based on text material.
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[1] I received support from NORLA for this event: https://norla.no/en/about-norla
[2] We are indebted to Ian Yeoman for that expression. During a guest lecturing visit at Bergen University College in 1995, dedicated to developing a pedagogy for meaningful and impactful TIE programmes, Yeoman used it as designation for building on emerging or emotionally charged issues that resonate with the group.
[3] Cf. Brecht’s ‘learning-play-model’ (Eriksson, 2009: 20; Silberman, 2021).
[4] See for instance proceedings from Université libre de Bruxelles (2024): New Readings on Russian Formalism. This revival underscores its enduring capacity to reveal how literary forms shape meaning – a useful capacity in relation to devising and exploring story drama.
[5] Heathcote herself has made a reference to one of the leading exponents of Russian formalism: Victor Shklovsky (Heathcote 1984a: 127).
[6] I thank Larry Swartz at U. of Toronto for his suggestion to consult Booth’s Pd.D. dissertation, An Examination of the Relationship Between Reading and Drama in Education (1978), about his uses of terms. (E-mail correspondence with the present author, July 10-18, 2025).
[7] The term “innerstanding” is not common in traditional academic literature, but it suggest a more holistic personal understanding; a more intuitive, or internalised understanding of an idea or something experienced. Hesten has used the term in relation to Heathcote talking about ‘internal coherence’ and ‘selecting significance’ (1994: 82-83).
Notes on Author
Stig A. Eriksson is Professor Emeritus at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Department of Arts Education, Faculty of Education, Arts and Sports – Campus Bergen. Eriksson has a long teaching and research experience in the field of educational drama and applied theatre. He has lectured and presented workshops in about 30 countries and publishes in a range of national and international journals. He is the author of Distancing at Close Range. Investigating the Significance of Distancing in Drama Education (2009).
Eriksson has been a presenter at the Dorothy Heathcote Now conferences 2021-2025.
Email: stig.audun.eriksson@hvl.no ; serikss@alexbullard97outlook-com
Home page: www.drama.no
Orchid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3065-2723
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