Mari Maurstad is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 actress. She debuted at Nationalteatret (the National Theatre) in 1981, and has worked there since. Here she has had roles such as "Polly" in Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

's The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...

, and "Mrs. Sørby" in Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

's The Wild Duck

The Wild Duck

The Wild Duck is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.-Plot:The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed...

. She has also acted in outdoor performances of Ibsen's Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...

, and in several one-woman shows. In film and television she is best known for her roles in Drømmeslottet

Drømmeslottet

Drømmeslottet is a 1986 Norwegian drama film written and directed by Petter Vennerød and Svend Wam, starring a large ensemble cast including, among others, Lasse Lindtner and Mari Maurstad. The film is part of a trilogy by the directors, where the other two instalments were titled Åpen framtid ...

(1986) and "Pilen flyttebyrå" (TV, 1987). Maurstad took part in the reality show "Skal vi danse" (based on "Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an allusion to the film Strictly Ballroom...

") in 2007.

Mari Maurstad's father was the renowned Norwegian actor Alfred Maurstad

Alfred Maurstad

Alfred Maurstad was a leading Norwegian actor, and the father of actor Toralv Maurstad. Beside being an actor, Alfred was famous for playing the fiddle...

, and actor Toralv Maurstad

Toralv Maurstad

Toralv Maurstad is a prominent actor of Norwegian stage, screen and television. By many regarded as the leading Norwegian actor of his generation, he is the son of the highly regarded actor Alfred Maurstad and actress Tordis Maurstad, and half-brother of actress Mari Maurstad.Maurstad graduated...

 is her half-brother. She is married to cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 Aage Kvalbein

Aage Kvalbein

Aage Kvalbein is a Norwegian cellist and a professor in cello at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He is one of the most well-renowned musicians in Norway, both as a soloist, chamber musician and as a pedagogue....

, and the couple have three children.

External links

• Home page Biography from Nationaltheateret. List of roles at Nationaltheateret.