Camden Fringe: Arabella Jacobson on Gammelstad

The writer discusses turning a visit to a remote Swedish church town into a play about chosen family, sibling bonds and intergenerational trauma

Debuting at Camden Fringe this August, Gammelstad is a new one-act play from CoupleL exploring the power of chosen family and the strength of sibling bonds. Set in 1860, it follows twelve-year-old Birgitta and her younger brother Bror as they arrive at their family’s cottage in the remote church town of Gammelstad in the Swedish Arctic Circle, seeking refuge from a toxic home life. Written by Arabella Jacobson (who also plays Birgitta) with co-writer Niall O’Mara, the play draws on a real visit to Gammelstad and on Jacobson’s academic background in psychology.

Ahead of its Camden Fringe run, Red Bus Londinium put five questions to Jacobson about the play’s origins, its historical setting, and what she hopes audiences take from it.

Red Bus: Gammelstad grew out of a real visit to the town in the Swedish Arctic Circle. What was it about that place that made you want to build a whole play around it?

The inception of Gammelstad the play arose from the timeless oral tradition of storytelling. When taking a tour of the real Gammelstad, stories were shared with us of the deep significance that the single-roomed, red, wooden cottages hold to its transient community. For hundreds of years, it was their social world; people would travel from far around to stay in Gammelstad overnight, to attend church, but also to come together to mourn, celebrate and share their lives together.

I’ve infused the show with these traditions of love and connection: courting rituals through poetry; singing of frogs round the maypole; cutting out decorations for funeral sweets. I thought of how many lives the cottages have lived, as they’ve been passed down from generation to generation, how much of the joy and grief that’s the human experience that they’ve witnessed. And how they only get brief glimpses into people’s lives, but the privilege of seeing them return again and again, each time older, and slightly different.

Red Bus: The story is set in 1860 but centres on chosen family and sibling bonds, themes that feel very present-day. What drew you to exploring them through this particular historical setting rather than a contemporary one?

The 1860s were a period of great change in Sweden, both politically and socially. Some women first got the vote in local elections, and religious pluralism became more accepted. Only around 50 years earlier, was it still compulsory to attend the Church of Sweden regularly, which is why Gammelstad and other towns were first created, to provide temporary accommodation for farmers who lived in isolated areas, whilst they were attending church. Despite church no longer being legally mandated, this tradition of staying in Gammelstad overnight persevered well into the 20th century. I began to think of a story of two siblings, who find escapism in this tradition. In a time without the opportunities for social connectivity that we have today, this refuge takes on an even greater significance for them. It is their only opportunity to meet other children of the same age, and learn of a way of life that’s very different from the harsh climate of their own family.

Red Bus: With your background in Psychology, how did that shape the way you approached writing Birgitta and Bror’s experience of a toxic family environment, and the protective role that friendship and community play for them?

One of the most important takeaways from my education in Psychology was the appreciation that the same events can be experienced differently, and have different outcomes for people, based on individual differences such as age, gender, personality and social support. Studies have shown that adverse childhood experiences, such as experiencing abuse (in the case of Birgitta and Bror, emotional abuse), can have deleterious effects on both mental and physical health. Indeed a growing body of literature suggests that the adverse effects of emotional abuse are equivalent to those caused by other forms of abuse. We see that without intervention, these harmful effects can often continue well into adulthood, shaping romantic attachment styles, self-esteem and mental health, and trauma can continue to be passed down through generations. This is something we see in the play; Birgitta and Bror grapple with the trauma that they’ve inherited, but in different ways, Bror externalises, Birgitta internalises, and the patterns that they’ve learned from their parents begin to repeat themselves.

Red Bus: The play has already had strong feedback at Greenwich Theatre and The Cockpit. Has the story or your understanding of these characters shifted at all since those earlier stagings?

We initially performed just the first scene at The Cockpit’s scratch night, Theatre in the Pound, towards the end of last year. Some of the questions in the Q&A portion centred around whether there is hope for the children in the rest of the play, as the play opens in quite a dark place. It is indeed the case that there is hope for the children! Though this isn’t necessarily in the form of an adult who saves them. I also came to realise, from staging this first scene, that perhaps the character of the father, Gunnar, was coming across as too dominant a force. This may be what we stereotypically expect of a 19th century man, but I think in this family it’s much more complex; his attempts to control are borne out of fear. I therefore made some changes to the script to allow him to show slightly more vulnerability, which, based on the feedback from more recent performances (a rehearsed reading at the Cockpit, and Greenwich Theatre’s scratch night), have been effective.

Red Bus: What would you most want a Camden Fringe audience to take away from Birgitta and Bror’s story?

I wanted to highlight the subject of intergenerational trauma and cast the discussion of it out of the proverbial shadows, which I am glad that we, as a society, are beginning to do. Despite the fact that Birgitta and Bror are not able to share their experiences with others in the play, their friends, Ruth and Alf, are instrumental in helping to change their paths, by meeting them with acknowledgement and empathy but also boundaries. I hope that audiences feel the love that the four children have for each other. It’s not perfect, but they have a chosen family which supports them, despite not necessarily being related by blood. I think this is one of the main messages of the play. Empathy and support are absolutely crucial in helping break the cycle of abuse across generations, and sometimes they don’t always come through the expected channels, so what more can we, as a society, do to give them?

Listings Information

Show: Gammelstad Company: CoupleL Venue: the Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St. Pauls Road, London, N1 2NA Dates: 17 & 18 August 2026, 7.30pm; 22 & 23 August 2026, 4.30pm Running time: 1 hour Tickets: Mon–Tue £10 (£8.50 concessions), Sat–Sun £12.50 (£11 concessions), via camdenfringe.com/events/gammelstad

Content warning: Gammelstad contains references to emotional abuse, suicide and mental illness.

Cast & Creative team: Written by Arabella Jacobson (who also plays Birgitta), co-written by Niall O’Mara (who also plays Gunnar/Alf). Directed and lit by Luke Ofield. Also starring Isabella Cottrell Kirby (Hedda/Ruth) and Luke Tearney (Bror). Co-produced by Lingquan Kong and Arabella Jacobson.

Photo credit: Finn Hartnup-Williams

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