”JOHNNY! Persona non grata”

november 30th, 2016 by Gustaf

Johnny Bode-sällskapet blev för en tid sedan kontaktad av Kristina Lindström, som i sin tur satte oss i förbindelse med den 80-årige amerikanske regissören, röstskådespelaren och filmarbetaren Norman B. Schwartz, bosatt i Madrid.

Norman Schwartz har skrivit pjäsen JOHNNY! Persona non grata, en tvåaktare om Johnny Bodes liv. Något oväntat kanske, eftersom Johnny trots allt är en relativt obskyr person även i sitt hemland.

Det visar sig att Schwartz först upptäckte Johnny Bode när han hörde hans insjungning av Stjärnehär, en svensk version av Close Your Eyes av Bernice Petkere, utgiven i original 1933. Berco (pseudonym för Berndt Carlberg) skrev en svensk text till revyn Razzia som Johnny sjöng in året efter, 1934.

Så här skriver Norman Schwartz:

The poet Phillip Larkin once wrote, ironically, that the world thinks that sexual intercourse was discovered in the UK in 1963. About that time, in Positano on the Amalfi coast, I met Birgitta Stenberg, and, after listening to stories of her and her friend’s life in Stockholm, realized that some of your fellow countrymen & women were far far ahead of that. 
A year or so ago I came upon the recording of Stjärnehär on YouTube, and began reading about Johnny’s life and times in the 1920s and 30s on the internet. He was far ahead of everybody!
 
“JOHNNY! Persona Non Grata,” a play in two acts, is an invention based on that outrageous life. I call my play “a theme and variations,” because it makes no claim being absolutely historically accurate, although much what Johnny tells us, stranger than fiction, is, as you know, absolutely true. I wrote in English. Kristina Lindström has done a wonderful translation.
 
The first act is set in Stockholm on the day the European war ended in 1945. Johnny, almost thirty years old, ostracized by the artistic community and without a friend, but hoping that someone will visit him, reminisces about the glories of his past life. Waiting, he sings many of his old songs. No one comes.
 
The second act takes place in Malmo at Christmastime in 1968, almost twenty-five years later. Johnny, alone again, now age fifty-six, has just released Bordellmammas visor and thinks he may soon be rich and famous again. At the end of the play, he finally manages to convince an old female friend from his glory days to join him in his celebration; together they sing songs from that album.
 
The play could be done as a drama without the songs Johnny wrote and sung, but hopefully, it will be done with them if I can find the right performer.

Det ska bli mycket spännande att se hur detta utvecklar sig. Vi hoppas att Norman Schwartz lyckas hitta både en lämplig huvudrollsinnehavare och teater för att sätta upp sin pjäs. Johnny Bode-sällskapet kommer givetvis att rapportera i så fall!

Leave a Reply