Musical play depicts early Swedish converts
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VASTERHANINGE, Sweden — "The Way Home," an original musical about early Latter-day Saint converts in Sweden that conveys the theme of eternal families, was presented to capacity audiences Aug. 7-11 at the Church meetinghouse a short distance from the Stockholm Sweden Temple.
Gunnel Hedberg, temple matron and wife of temple president Arne Hedberg, wrote the script and song lyrics and directed the production.
Set in Sweden in the 1840s, the plot surrounds the family of Erik and Hanna Roos who lose Ida, their beloved but unbaptized daughter, a situation described in many diaries from that time. An unbaptized person was considered a heathen and, upon death, had to be buried outside the churchyard wall.
Wouldn't Ida be able to come back to God? Would the family never be able to be together with her again?
The answer comes 15 years later through a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elias, Erik's father, and a son, Gideon, are the first to be baptized. After a while, the rest of the family are also baptized. But family members are persecuted by a mob and make the decision to emigrate to America and the Salt Lake Valley. During the trek across the prairie to Zion, another daughter dies. After the family has been sealed eternally, they know that they won't have to be separated after death. This forms the main theme of the musical.
Sister Hedberg has written 12 musicals and plays, among them "The Long Journey," "Between Here and There," "The Rainbow," "Beyond the Horizon" and "Angel Wanted." All have gospel themes. She began writing for the theater when, on one occasion as a stake missionary, she was asked to write scripts to present Church history in an accessible way to the youth in the Church Educational System. Last year, she wrote another musical, "The One Carried by the Sun."
"When I started reading about the members in Scandinavia, I discovered many similar stories and started writing about some of these people," she said. "But most of the basis for 'The Way Home' I found in the diary notes I had access to when in 1993 I wrote a book for CES about the first years of the Church in Scandinavia. The diaries were from Sweden, Denmark and Norway, most of them from 1850 to 1900. The story about the Roos family in 'The Way Home' is, therefore, built upon real events and descriptions about the fates of various people.
"A source of inspiration is my father-in-law who lost his whole family with some of the children not baptized. As there was no temple in Sweden at that time, he saved money and went to Salt Lake City to have the ordinances for his family performed. After that he returned to Sweden."
"The Way Home was originally written for the sesquicentennial celebration of the Church in Sweden in 2000 but was partially revised for this new performance.
"I wanted to improve it and let the songs speak more," Sister Hedberg said. "The highlight scenes are the results of many prayers. It's essential to influence people in a short time. Some of the songs make me impressed. I feel that I didn't write them — they just came to me."
This year, Church members in Sweden observe another important event as it is 150 years since Peter and Christina Forsgren, siblings of Sweden's first missionary, John Forsgren, in 1852 emigrated to the Great Salt Lake Valley on a ship that sailed from Copenhagen with 294 members on board.
Audiences filled the 230-seat combined chapel and cultural hall at all five performances. Members invited friends and acquaintances, who comprised about 40 percent of the 1,200 total attendance.
Seventy-two members of all ages were involved in the musical. Peter Edvinsson, a music teacher and composer, created the varied music — folk songs, pop, Irish folk tunes, psalms, ballads and mood music. It made many want to dance but also gave a strong, spiritual feeling.
Among highlights were "Talking to the Lord God," a piece that conveys the message that little children belong to the kingdom of God without having to be baptized, a thought that was unthinkable in the Christian church of the 19th Century; "Somewhere," that children come from God and His children knew one other in the pre-mortal existence; "Why, Lord?" expressing the despair of the parents wondering why little Ida was taken from them, and "My Little Friend," about the mother, Hanna, longing to meet her daughter again and be together with her forever.
Captivating dances, performed by children and youth, were choreographed by members, including Cornelia Hagman, leader of a cheerleading group, Power Sharks, "who have won first prize in Swedish championships since 1996."
Cast members felt strongly that they were part of the Lord's work. The summer heat was intensive during all performances. "It hasn't been difficult once; I have been looking forward to every show," one said. "The fellowship we have felt and the strong spiritual experience have outweighed everything else."
Sister Hedberg explained that between 1852 and 1900 around 27,000 members emigrated from Scandinavia to America. "I wanted to tell what happened to them before they emigrated," she said, "and show that there is great reason for their descendants in America to be proud of their ancestors. Erastus Snow, mission president for Scandinavia in Denmark in the 1850s, once said that those who haven't experienced the persecutions during the first years in Kirtland cannot imagine what met the first members in Scandinavia. Among the converts in Sweden who didn't emigrate, only a generation remained faithful. That's why the spreading of the gospel came to a halt in Sweden during the 1900s."
