Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0876021720, Paperback)

Play script by Thorbjorn Egner. Translated from the Norwegian. Original folk tale, quite ambitious, with musical treatment of operatic dimensions. Stationary set with alternating inserts, or multiple sets on turntable. Folk costumes. Cast of 2 women, 8 men, 3 children, elastic number of other people and animals, as desired.

Under the benign eye of their good-natured Policeman, the people of Cardemon Town are happily celebrating a Fair, with street shows, animal stunts, and songs. But their pleasure is threatened by the presence on the edge of town of three robbers, Casper, Jasper, and Jonathan, who keep a pet lion to protect them from the law. The three robbers, however, are very human fellows. Dissatisfied with their own uncouth ways, they kidnap Aunt Sophie from the town, to keep house for them. Aunt Sophie, a real tartar, at last has someone to shout at who really deserves it. Taking hold of her job like a master sergeant, she makes the three men wash and scrub and sweep and dig and plant and chop wood, until their dearest wish is to be rid of her. Transporting her back home in the dead of the night, they are caught in the act, and imprisoned in the town's pleasant jail, where in the care of the Policeman's kindly wife, they become useful citizens.

This play is recognized abroad as a major classic. It has been translated into many languages, is regularly presented at holiday times by the great opera houses of Europe, Russia, and Japan. Its translation into English is an event.