My acquittal

Eventually I will have to put numbers in a spreadsheet and send it to someone in an office in Australia who will file it away forever in a colossal cardboard box marked 'funding acquittals'. 

But for now this is my account of two weeks in Sweden, where I:

Ate cheese in a gold room (and not just any gold room – the one where Nobel Prize Laureates dine every year)

Setting the bar high for homemade mosaics - they used 10kg of gold

Had approximately 27 awkward moments where people spoke Swedish to me and I tried to keep the charade going with a well-placed ‘tak’ (thank you)

Gave up converting things from kroner to dollars and accepted the Stockholm-shaped hole developing in my wallet

This is what my bank account looks like now

Learnt that Strindberg invented the first ‘Blue Steel’ pout at the tender age of 22

Got so discombobulated by Swedish summer sunshine that 2am became my new bedtime

Just some standard nocturnal hijinks

Felt strangely at home dancing to Ai Se Eu Te Pego in a Stockholm theatre (Timor’s favourite pop song which I usually hear in taxis and from the mouths of children across Dili)

Experienced real Swedish hospitality when invited to dinner at the chic apartment of a playwright and her philosopher husband (yes, really that is his job)

Developed the ‘Stockholm diet’, where punnets of strawberries are supplemented with coffee, savoury crepes and cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon rolls are best served with a city skyline in the background

Went to the Stockholm Fringe Festival and paid to see a German man wax his legs (and unmentionables)

For the first time, actually participated in an Open Mic night

This is not me doing open mic... I'll aim for this in 40 years

Had several reunions (some squealing, others not) with friends from Australia, Sweden and Croatia

Old friends

Met playwrights from South Africa, Jamaica, Egypt, Canada, Uganda, Iran, India, Indonesia, Spain, Wales, Lebanon, Cuba… the list goes on

Heard my play read by Swedish (and one Norwegian) actors

This is what play readings in Sweden look like

Listened to the lead actress from Peter Brook’s Mahabarata talk about 20+ years of social activism using theatre as a tool for change

Walked through the streets chanting ‘Free Pussy Riot’ with a bunch of fearlessly vocal, creative women

Met a theatremaker from Egypt who experienced the Arab Spring firsthand. 

She said: ‘I believe nothing has changed but us. And I believe that will make all the difference’.