{"id":15279,"date":"2025-11-09T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T13:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/?page_id=15279"},"modified":"2025-11-10T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:36:11","slug":"helen-sjoholm-emotional-to-see-it-on-home-soil","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/press-clips\/various-2025\/helen-sjoholm-emotional-to-see-it-on-home-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Sj\u00f6holm: “Emotional to see it on home ground”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Helen

Photo & \u00a9 Sundsvalls Tidning, Maria Eilertsen<\/p><\/div>\n

Sundsvalls Tidning 2025-10-30<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: SUSANNE HOLMLUND
\nPhoto: MARIA EILERTSEN<\/p>\n

Naturally, the very first Kristina from Duvem\u00e5la had to see the new production \u2014 especially since it\u2019s being staged in her hometown. Helen Sj\u00f6holm, who embodied the role for nearly five years, attended the Sundsvall version on Wednesday evening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d better bring some handkercheifs \u2014 I\u2019ll be moved on so many levels,\u201d she said beforehand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so beautiful. I feel fulfilled and a little overwhelmed,\u201d she said afterwards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the foyer of Tonhallen, a photo of today\u2019s Kristina, Tuva B Larsen, shows her seated on the iconic swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe swing is there!\u201d the first Kristina exclaims, when we meet her earlier that day before the performance.<\/p>\n

When she first swung on stage in Malm\u00f6, where the musical premiered in 1995, she had a 15-20 meter sprint to reach it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was far and I was to leap onto it. It gave such a childlike, pure feeling \u2014 we captured how young they really are, just kids,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalm\u00f6 Opera’s stage is the largest in northern Europe and it added an epic quality to the story. The vulnerability became so palpable, even when you were doing something alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside Tonhallen, Sj\u00f6holm immediately admires the new stage design.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur production was magical in its simplicity, and I see that here too \u2014 the wooden floor, the fields of grain. We had that as well, the grain is a symbol of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we had a different color setting. We had a wonderful costume designer who said, \u2018I see Kristina as a big pumpkin.\u2019 I wore orange, and us farmers were dressed in browns and oranges. Those who were travelling were blue, like the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sj\u00f6holm got the role at the end of 1994, still relatively unknown at the time. She performed Kristina until 1999 \u2014 in Malm\u00f6, Gothenburg and Stockholm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that if I said yes, I\u2019d have to give it everything I had. I\u2019d heard some of the music and knew there was an incredible power in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKristina became my school where I learned so much. There were always new emotions to explore and improve. Not a single day passed without a new idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was intense work. She remembers the moment the team realized the musical was too long and had to be shortened \u2014 forcing them to reverse they things they’d learned. That\u2019s when the tears came.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrangely, I never got tired of the role. Just tired. We performed five days a week for four and a half years, and you had to give a hundred percent every time. My mom said, \u2018Aren\u2019t you ever going to rest? You look more and more exhausted.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you go into a tunnel and do only one thing. I missed a lot, but I also gained a lot,\u201d she reflects.<\/p>\n

No one could have predicted Kristina from Duvem\u00e5la would become the phenomenon it did, not even Helen Sj\u00f6holm.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I knew was that I\u2019d gotten a name connected to beautiful singing. Then came Chess<\/em>, quite soon after \u2014 a completely different character, but within the same creative family \u2014 and I got to work with Tommy K\u00f6rberg, my idol. That\u2019s when I realized: this is probably going to be my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty years have gone by since the world premiere and Helen Sj\u00f6holm, like original director Lars Rudolfsson, believes a reinterpretation is due; it’s needed for a piece to stay vivid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard so many good things about this version \u2014 I keep getting texts from people. And I\u2019ve spoken with Tuva,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The two previously shared the stage in the musical \u00c4nglag\u00e5rd (House of Angels)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I saw her in S\u00e5 som i himmelen (As It Is in Heaven),<\/em> which is close to my heart since I was in the film. She moves me deeply. If I were casting, I\u2019d have chosen Tuva as Kristina.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days Helen Sj\u00f6holm is busy with a \u201cpocket musical\u201d created with fellow performer Gunilla Backman. Titled N\u00e5n m\u00e5ste g\u00f6ra det (Someone Has to Do It)<\/em>, it tells the story of two strong women cleaning out the basement of a library.<\/p>\n

\u201cGunilla and I wanted to do something together, not a concert of musical numbers but a show where we actually play characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music isn\u2019t new; instead, they\u2019ve chosen songs they aren\u2019t typically associated with, performed to recorded accompaniment since you can\u2019t really fit musicians in a library basement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a small, isolated room \u2014 minimal set and just the two of us. It\u2019s about civil courage, and what ordinary people have the power to question,\u201d Helen Sj\u00f6holm says.<\/p>\n

This marks the third time she sees Kristina from Duvem\u00e5la<\/em> as a member of the audience. She once watched her own production while recovering from a sore throat, and later saw the Helsinki version when it toured Stockholm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t listened to the full soundtrack since then. This musical has such a special place in my heart, and it\u2019s one of those roles that just grips you. Seeing it here, in my hometown, feels very emotional,\u201d she said before the show.<\/p>\n

And afterwards:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so beautiful. It\u2019s amazing how the body still remembers every movement. I\u2019m impressed by the cast and all the roles \u2014 the staging is lovely, and this version tells the story more efficiently than ours since it\u2019s a bit shorter. I\u2019m going home fulfilled and a bit overwhelmed \u2014 and so glad I got to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone Has to Do It\u201c will be performed in Sundsvall on December 6.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Helen

Photo & \u00a9 Sundsvalls Tidning, Maria Eilertsen<\/p><\/div>\n

(The entire article is not reproduced for copyright reasons).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sundsvalls Tidning 2025-10-30 By: SUSANNE HOLMLUND Photo: MARIA EILERTSEN Naturally, the very first Kristina from Duvem\u00e5la had to see the new production \u2014 especially since Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":15174,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15279","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15279"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15293,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15279\/revisions\/15293"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helensjoholm.nu\/_eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}