CHILDHOOD REVOLUTION AT UNGA KLARA - A performance analysis of ’För att jag säger det’ from a gender perspective LINNÉA WÄISÄNEN Abstract The Swedish professional theatre for children and young audiences is in a constant change, development and renewal due to adulthoods shifting view and understanding of the child and childhood through the ages. The shifting discourse of childhood can be seen both in the various theatre performances for children and young audiences throughout the 20th century, but also in the constant shifting discussions and debates about what sort of performances are appropriate for children. The base of this thesis is a performance analysis of a recorded version of Unga Klara’s För att jag säger det from a gender perspective, with a focus on the stage setting and the mise-en-scène, along with the actors’ performative actions. The purpose is to examine if and how these theatrical signs counteracts or correlates with gender and hetero norms, but also investigate if the complex relationship between childhood and adulthood can be seen in the performance. To do this, I use a combination of hermeneutics, theatre semiotics and phenomenology as my main methodological starting point. Theories about gender performativity and discourse analysis in childhood studies serve as perspectives to the analysis and interpretation of the performance. The analysis starts with a brief introduction to the performance along with a discussion about the dramaturgical structure and the course of events and situations taking place in För att jag säger det. The analysis continues with a discussion about the theatrical space, in particular the stage space in relation to the starting point of the performance, along with the theatrical communication between the actors and the audience. Then, I discuss the theatrical signs that first caught my attention; the actors’ performative bodies and the music and stage sounds, where I analyse my comprehension of the actors’ performative bodies from a gender perspective. The analysis then continues to a more argument based interpretation of the interactions between the actors and the audience, and follows by a discussion of the actors impersonation of childhood and adulthood. In the last part of the analysis I identify and discuss my understanding of various themes and messages in För att jag säger det. The result of the study implies that a few sequences of the staging along with the actors’ performative bodies in För att jag säger det correlates to gender and hetero norms, but mostly the performance discourages normativity in general. The complex relationship between childhood and adulthood are however well established in the performance’s staging, and can be found in how the actors portraits childhood versus adulthood. It is also visible in the interactive communicational parts between the stage and the auditorium, which only occurs under the terms and conditions of the actors. Keywords: Unga Klara, gender, performativity, performance analysis, childhood revolution, theatre for children and young audiences