Characters appearing in the stage and movie musical The Station Master Is on Fire.
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Axel Hansson
Axel Hansson
- Played by: Anders Eriksson
The eponymous Station Master. When receiving news that the train station has been shut down, he hatches a desperate Zany Scheme to keep it open, no matter the cost.
- Appeal to Tradition: His response to Bror-Ivar amounts to not wanting to make any pointless changes.
- Bad Liar: Many of his claims are quite outrageous and generally amount to Digging Yourself Deeper. Most people In-Universe still find them believable enough for him to get away with them.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: As far as he’s concerned, at least. Axel is an outspoken atheist, who doesn’t under any circumstances want his station to be turned into a church.
- Hypocritical Humor: Makes a big deal out of Sören’s constant singing, even though he’s a musical protagonist who sings just as much. Perhaps best demonstrated when he tells Sören that he very much doesn’t want to be a song and dance man... in the form of a song and dance number.
- Karma Houdini: He ultimately receives no punishment for his actions, beyond being forced to tell the truth and spend a few hours worrying about his job.
- Kick That Son Of A Bitch: From his perspective, kidnapping and beating up Gerhard is simply just desserts for shutting down his station.
- Laughably Evil: Some of his hijinks are quite immoral and even illegal, but they are all Played for Laughs.
- Rail Enthusiast: Is utterly obsessed with trains, which is part of the reason why he fights so hard to keep his job even when others are offered to him.
- Villain Protagonist: Albeit purely of the Affably Evil kind.
- We Need a Distraction: His Train Madness song is one, and he also has Sören ask Bror-Ivar to sing to facilitate another.
Sören Skärberg
Sören Skärberg
- Played by: Knut Agnred
The nominal signalman of the station, though in practise he’s more of a Jack of All Trades. He’s a bit of an oddball, but generally competent at his job, and certainly loyal to Axel.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Considered quite strange because his constant singing, with Harry even calling him a lunatic directly. Given that this is a musical, the audience finds it more to be expected.
- The Determinator: Nothing stops him from singing, not even getting run over by a train, which he seems to have made a full recovery from. At least it wasn’t an evil train.
- The Dragon: Essentially becomes this following Axel’s kidnappning of Gerhard.
- Dreadful Musician: Treated as such In-Universe, though whether or not he’s actually Hollywood Tone-Deaf depends on which version you watch.
- Everyone Has Standards: He covers his ears and leaves the room when Bror-Ivar starts singing. Also, during Jerry’s Heavy Song he just stares at the eponymous singer in Stunned Silence.
- The Lost Lenore: His wife left him some time ago, but he copes by singing. Those unfortunate enough to lay their ears on it wish that she would comes back in the hopes that it might make him shut up.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Is indicated to be a signalman, yet he spends much of the play varnashing a bench, and in the film he also drives the delivery track carrying Rosa’s packages. It helps that he’s the only station employee to not be a Living Prop.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Goes along with all of Axel’s plans, but isn’t particularly good at them.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Loves Axel as a boss, even though he apparently once punished him with riding a bike without a saddle in front of a train. Unless he just made that up to scare Gerhard.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: His Establishing Character Moment has him act as though he was the inspiring hero of the story — a belief in which he is entirely alone — and when Axel becomes depressed, he’s there to try and cheer him up. It’s telling that Sören himself becoming downtrodden marks the point where the story reaches its Darkest Hour.
Harry Jernfeldt
Harry Jernfeldt
- Played by: Peter Rangmar
A frustrated passenger who is running late for a very important meeting, and keeps demanding to know when the train will arrive. Is apparently a bigwig within Swedish trade and industry, though his actual profession is unclear.
- Berserk Button: Hates singing — or at least what he considers to be bad singing — and the trains being late. Too bad he’s in a musical with that very premise.
- The Comically Serious: It takes much to make him lose his composure, which is frequently Played for Laughs. This is especially clear in the song Hard Love, where he and Ernst act as the dead serious backup singers/dancers while Gerhard serenades his MasterCard.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Technically counts, though the only corrupt thing we see him do is conning a stranger into buying an overpriced postcard, simply because It Amused Me.
- Hypocritical Humor: As much as he hates Axel lying to him about the current state of the station, , he sees no issues with conning Jerry out of some pocket change just for the saké of it.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Does this repeatedly throughout the show, though he eventually comes back just in time to finally catch his train.
- Separated at Birth: Turns out to be the long lost brother of Ernst, to his great dismay.
- Straight Man: Possibly the most ”normal” character in the whole show. He ends up spending much of it frustrated and perterbed by all the weirdness going on around him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Gains such a relationship with Ernst over the course of the story, with a big emphasis on the “vitriolic” part. They are last seen having a great time together celebrating the reopening of the station.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: He eventually reveals that he’s a chief executive officer, but we never find out for which company or even within what field.
- When He Smiles: For all his grumpiness, even he can’t resist joining into Rosa’s dance session, and he gladly partakes in the celebration once the train actually does arrive.
Ernst Ivarsson
Ernst Ivarsson
- Played by: Jan Rippe
Another passenger. He’s trying to visit his sister and surprise her with a cake. Being one of the more proactive visitors to the station, he becomes determined to uncover what’s really going on there.
- Butt-Monkey: Is generally ignored by the staff, gets knocked out by a Tap on the Head, and possibly has his cake ruined by some random pastor.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he is a bit more indulgent than Harry, he also covers his ears during Sören’s song, and flees the room alongside them during Bror-Ivar’s big number.
- Fun Personified: Unlike Harry, he is far more willing to just go with the flow. He gladly accepts a drink when the station suddenly transforms into a pizzeria, and seems quite excited about riding the wheel horse train, to say nothing about his reaction when learning who his brother is.
- The Generic Guy: Even the official YouTube channel mentions his “very neutral appearance.”
- Nice Guy: Has a largely friendly demeanor, not to mention that his main goal is to pay his sister a pleasant surprise visit.
- Nightmare Face: Played for Laughs. He gets a creepy closeup of his face while chasing Harry around after learning that they’re brothers.
- Not So Above It All: As much as he wants to be the voice of reason, he has a fair number of Comically Missing The Point Moments. He gets stuck in One Dialogue, Two Conversations during Harry’s phone call, is utterly baffled by Axel being Mugged for Disguise by Gerhard, and fails to get the message when Harry asks him if he knows what an executive is.
- Only Sane Man: The only person around with enough sense and morals to call Axel out for keeping a man prisoner.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: He would likely be considered a Cloudcuckoolander under most circumstances, but in this borderline World of Weirdness he comes across as mostly normal by comparison.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: The Wise Guy to Harry’s Straight Man. Of course, Ernst makes a fine Straight Man himself when faced with even more bizarre station visitors.
Gerhard Vilén
Gerhard Vilén
- Played by: Claes Eriksson
A division head at The Swedish State Railways (SJ). He arrives at the station to give the unfortunate news that it has been shut down, but ends up taking on more than he bargained for.
- Bearer of Bad News: It’s a bit more complicated than him being just the messenger though, as shutting down the station was his idea in the first place, even if he wanted to avoid it.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Reopens the station by the end of the story. Of course, being a wannabe politician, he would never admit to changing his mind.
- Good All Along: He eventually reveals that he never really wanted to shut down the station at all, and was willing to take another option the moment one became available. Our protagonists just never gave him the chance to explain himself.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Not only does he personally return to the station to inform everyone that it isn’t closing after all, he also drives the train there himself. Lampshaded in the movie, where this results in his father getting stuck in his office for hours waiting for him to return.
- Money Fetish: In the stage version, he performs a heartfelt love song to his MasterCard, which he has stronger feelings for than any woman.
- Mugged for Disguise: Ends up stealing and Donning Axel’s station master uniform during his escape attempt.
- Shoot the Messenger: Calls out Axel for abusing him when all he did was reporting the decision the board had made.
- Stockholm Syndrome: He becomes very chummy with Axel and Sören by the end, considering that they did kidnap him.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Becomes far more humble and friendly after being called out for supposedly only caring about money.
- You Have No Idea Who You Are Dealing With: His rather justified reaction to being put in a bag and then beaten.
Mona Hansson
Mona Hansson
- Played by: Kerstin Granlund
Axel’s beloved wife. She is concerned and loyal towards her husband, but there are some secrets he’s keeping from her.
- Awful Wedded Life: Axel is introduced arguing with her over the phone. No he did not call her fat, there are after all skinny cows.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:?Once Axel gives up his ruse and becomes very downtrodden, she does her best to comfort him.
- The Comically Serious: Has her moments. Much like Harry, she remains dead serious while riding the wheel horse train.
- Despair Event Horizon: Just about crosses it during The Elevon O Clock Number, describing herself as “the Station Master’s now useless wife.” It takes a Surprisingly Happy Ending to snap her out of it.
- Locked Out of the Loop: To her great frustration, Axel doesn’t have the heart to tell her the truth about the situation until the end of the play.
- Relationship Reveal: [[Spoiler: Sören]] turns out to be her brother, and both [[Spoiler: Gerhard and Axel ]]are implied to be her half-brothers as well, something both spouses are surprisingly fine with.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Gets very uncomfortable when Bror-Ivar starts singing, and briefly leaves the room along with the rest of his audience.
- Understanding Wife: Remains supportive of Axel, despite everything he has done.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Doesn’t have too much of a reaction upon meeting a department head from The Swedish State Railways without his pants on.
- When She Smiles: Becomes just as enthusiastic as her husband when the station is finally reopened.
Stellan Larsson
Constable Stellan Larsson
- Played by: Per Fritzell
A police officer who also wishes to catch a train. He is generally friendly, but not particularly competent.
- Actor Allusion: Per Fritzell played very similar-looking policemen in both Leif and Macken. Might count as a straight-up Recurring Character.
- Artistic License – Law: Almost goes without saying. He seems rather confused about how crime investigations are actually carried out.
- Book Ends: at least song-wise. He is only heard singing during the opening and the closing number.
- Dumb Is Good: Despite his obvious incompetence, he appears to be a fairly decent person.
- Insane Troll Logic: How he typically operates. He even believes Axel’s obvious lie that the man trapped in the sack was actually a chicken in an elephant condom on her way to visit a brothel.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Claims to be perfectly capable of breaking down doors, but his actual track records do little to reiterate this.
- Musical Number Annoyance: Hates Sören’s opening number about as much as the other characters on the platform. In the movie, he also shots the window to his Office when Jerry sings outside. He gladly joins in on the closing number though, unless that was his brother.
- Out of Focus: Gets far less screentime than the other passengers, and leaves for the police station partway through the show, not returning until the finale. This allows actor Per Fritzell to appear as other characters.
- Police Are Useless: Completely fails to uncover the kidnapping plot, and is nowhere to be seen when the station is later robbed.
- Relationship Reveal: In the movie, he is also revealed to have a brother who is a fellow policeman — as well as a twin — and boards the train right before he does.
Rosa Flodqvist
Rosa Flodqvist
- Played by: Kerstin Granlund
A woman with a very extensive family, and plenty of packages to send them all. You may have read about her in the papers.
- A Man In Every Port: A Rare Female Example. Her ex-husbands are distributed across the world, being found in Munich, London, Shanghai, Cologne
, Rome, Dubai, Crete, Bonn, Hjo, Cape Horn and Malibu. - Amiable Exes: Played With. She’s still sending all of her ex-husbands their favorite alcohol brands, but only because she would rather have them Drink Away Their Sorrows in peace than bother her in person.
- Doting Mom: Towards all twenty two of them. Children never grow up in the eyes of their mother, after all.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Appears at the very beginning as a prominent but nondescript extra. It’s only in the third song that she gets any proper characterization.
- Hates Being Chased: As Sören can attest to. Mind you, given what a Cloudcuckoolander and a Wild Card he is, it’s unclear what — if anything — he planned to actually do had he caught her.
- Mrs. Robinson: Downplayed, but Teddy Roos — her current lover — is clearly portrayed as being younger than her.
- Musical Number Annoyance: Is very annoyed by Sören’s opening number, a sentiment she shares with the other characters on the platform.
- Nice Girl: Seems to be a sweet old lady, and everybody at the station — even the normally grumpy Harry — are swept up in her song and gladly help her carry all of her packages.
- Really Gets Around: She has had eleven sons and eleven daughters with eleven husbands, and is presumably on her twelth now.
-
You Might Remember Me from...: Assuming the claim that ”she’s a mama whom you read about in Året Runt” is meant to be taken literally, then she’s constantly bringing up the fact that she’s been featured in a popular newspaper.
Jerry Kopp
Jerry Kopp
- Played by: Claes Eriksson
A country fan with big dreams. Wants to leave Svedum to find ”some place where [he’s] got room.”
- Bad Butt: Has the esthetic of a Swedish raggare, seemingly mostly for Rule of Cool reasons. The only ”bad” thing he’s ever shown doing is turning down some toffee from an old girlfriend.
- Chivalrous Pervert: By all accounts. He’s still on good terms with his first girlfriend, who calls him ” shy little Mickey Mouse” just to seal the deal.
- Half-Witted Hillbilly: Harry assumes him to be one, partially because he listens to country. The fact that he gets conned into buying a postcard ”ticket” for 200 kr (”Half prize!”) isn’t exactly doing him any favours.
- Kid A Nova: Claims that he ”became a casanova already as a confirmand” presumably around the age of fifteen.
- Metaphorgotten: Describes his desire to leave town in a series of increasingly bizarre metaphors.
- Jerry Kopp: This is a bag. In bags lie cheese. I am not a cheese, so I’m leaving now!
- The One Who Made It Out: Yearns to become this, as he considers his hometown to be a dump which he’s outgrown.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Is quite proud of his religious upbringing, perhaps mostly because his younger self got to score with the girl confirmands.
- Same Clothes, Different Year: His flashbacks shows that he’s work the same cap — and moustache — ever since he was a baby.
- Smoking Is Cool: He probably thinks so, at the very least.
Jerry’s First Girlfriend
Jerry’s First Girlfriend
- Played by: Kerstin Granlund
Jerry Kopp’s first (now ex-) girlfriend. He ran into her again randomly on his way to the station.
- Affectionate Nickname: Calls Jerry ”shy little Mickey Mouse” which really indicates what a big softie he is on the inside.
- Amiable Exes: She and Jerry are genuinly pleased to see each other, and get along fairly well.
- The Ghost: In the stage version. Averted in the film, where Jerry’s Heavy Song is a filmed flashback.
- Larynx Dissonance: Played With. The film still has her old boyfriend quote her, but shows the lady herself saying her lines, to similar effect. Apparently Jerry got all of her inflections exactly right.
- No Name Given: Her name is never mentioned, not even in the credits.
- She's All Grown Up: She and Jerry were presumably teenagers when they dated. After reuniting decades later, he says that “she was more beautiful than ever.”
- Sweet Tooth: Seems to have a bit of this, as she offers Jerry some toffe.
- Throw It In!: In the film, her groceries are implied to be the inspiration for Jerry’s cheese metaphor. It Makes Sense in Context, mostly.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Possibly, assuming that she is meant to be an older version of one of the church girls shown earlier in the flashback.
- Understanding Ex-girlfriend: Is the only person we see who is actually supportive of Jerry’s desire to look for something better.
Emilio and Angelo
Emilio and Angelo
- Played by:Knut Agnred (Emilio), Per Fritzell (Angelo)
A pair of Italian businessmen who plan on turning the station into a pizzeria. They are quite popular with the local girls, and not-so-popular with their fathers.
- The Ace: Consider themselves such, and their fangirls tend to agree.
- Chick Magnet: Their song Daddy I Want An Italian, is mainly them boasting about being this, while amassing enough female admirers to show for it.
- Cool Car: They briefly mention Italy’s perchant for designing these, and of course drive one in the film.
- The Dividual: Have no individual traits, being pretty much two copies of one character.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: They claim that Swedes love everything and everyone Italian. There is some truth to this, as pizzerias had only gotten popular in the country since the previous decade, and were still thought of as something of a novelty.
- Gratituous Italian: Their song unsurprisingly features this, with the phrases ”Mamma Mia” and ”O Sole Mio” thrown in on occasion.
- Immigrant Patrionism: They love Sweden enough to incorporate the opening lines of the national anthem into their song, albeit mostly because they see it as a breeding ground for their own business and culture.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Supposedly based on Swedish-American dancer Emilio Ingrosso, or at least on the
Estrogen Brigade he accumilated. - Sharp-Dressed Man: They wear fancy suits with ridiculously oversized shoulder pads.
- Spagetti And Gondolas: Basically a collection of as many Italian stereotypes as could be squeezed into about three minutes.
Torgny and Rigmor Assarsson
Torgny and Rigmor Assarsson
- Played by: Per Fritzell (Torgny), Kerstin Granlund (Rigmor)
A traditional musician couple who check out the station on behalf of the local community association.
- Ambiguous Syntax: They and the rest of the community association are celebrating their 80th anniversary. That is, the association itself is 80 years old, not every one of its members, as they want to make very clear.
- Cloudcuckoolander: For starters, they hold “sing-along and animal impersonation events”, and have released a record with the ”catch” title My Father Is Dead And So Is My Mother However My Brother Is Still With Us. Yeah, you could say that they are a bit loopy.
- Crazy-Prepared: Their song features a very Long List of all the ways you should prepare yourself before venturing out into the forest. While we know that they didn’t write it In-Universe, they do still perform it with no hint of irony.
- Dreadful Musician: Their song is deliberately written to have repetitive music, equally repetitive rhyming and a bizarre subject matter. Torgny is also rather more Hollywood Tone-Deaf than Per Fritzell’s other characters.
- Happily Married: They may bicker a bit, but they do so without ever raising their voices or losing their respect for one another.
- Manchild: Torgny can come off as such with his dorky mannerisms and appearance. Per Fritzell stated that he based him on himself as a teenager (an aspect of self he normally tried suppressing.)
- North By Northwest: Averted. Being from a Swedish production, they are a quite accurate portrayal of local traditional musicians, albeit not particularly great ones.
- Outdated Name: ”Torvald” and ”Rigmor” are very old fashioned names, which fits with them wanting to turn the station into a historic museum.
- Self-Parody: See Manchild above. More generally, they are the most stereotypically Swedish characters in the play, and are presented as rather ridiculous.
- Spoof Aesop: Their song My Brother And Me And The Policeman ends with the stated aesop “Never call the police if your brother has gone lost in the forest for a year.”
Jack and Göte
Jack and Göte
- Played by: Per Fritzell (Jack) and Knut Agnred (Göte)
A pair of bank robbers who hold the station hostage, believing it to be a bank. It takes a lot for our protagonists to convince them otherwise.
- Beard of Evil: Göte has a goatee, which helps making him more distinct from Knut Agnred’s other characters.
- Cassandra Truth: Jack refuses to believe any claims that he’s not at a bank. The train station story? That’s just something the staff rehearsed. Axel’s uniform? The guy probably made it himself.
- Failed a Spot Check: They ignore several blatant signs that the building they’re in isn’t actually a bank, and deny any claims otherwise. Göte at least has the excuse of not seeing anything without his glasses.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: They are so ridiculously bad at their job that it’s hard to not feel at least a bit of pity for them.
- Laughably Evil: They are a bit too bumbling to truly be seen as a threat, even when pointing guns in people’s faces. This is especially the case when Jack begs his hostades to go easy on them because their ”work isn’t simple!”
- Stocking Mask: Jack wears one, but Göte couldn’t find any stockings and has to make do with a ’’wooly sock'', which he of course can’t see anything out of.
- Stupid Crooks: Boy are they ever! Made worse by Jack’s claim that they’ve repeatedly mistaken other buildings for banks!
- Train Robbery: After realizing their mistake, Göte suggests that he and Jack should just — in a In-Universe example of Throw It In! — take the opportunity to rob s train. However, Jack is so embarrased by the whole thing that he doesn’t even want to attempt it.
- You Look Familiar:While Knut Agned and especially Per Fritzell already play several characters in the show, their casting as Jack and Göte stand out as they also played Emilio and Angelo, another pair of Those Two Guys.
Bror-Ivar Lunne
Bror-Ivar Lunne
- Played by: Per Fritzell
A pastor of the Pentecostal Church who rebuild the station into a huge cathedral. He’s very enthusiastic about his plans, but seems mostly oblivious about the lack of any such enthusiasm from the people in his immediate surroundings.
- Graceful Loser: Happily joins in on Axel’s song, even though it was meant as a response against him. This could be taken as him gladly supporting the continued existance of the station, once it turns out that it may not be closing down, after all.
- Jumped at the Call: Gleefully joins in on Axel’s you horse train. While he may disagree with the man on quite a few topics, it seem like he at least appreciates his love of hijinks.
- Never Recycle a Building: Completely Averted. He specializes in doing just this, having previously helped turning a library into an organ store and pub, a city hotel into a radio club, and a cinema into a cafeteria and chapel.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Towards Mona during his musical number. She is quite uncomfortable with this, and visibly relieved when he leaves.
- Obliviously Evil: ”Evil” is probably too harsh of a word, but it never seems to dawn on him just how little the other people at the station actually like him.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: In-Universe. He uses Harry’s newspaper and Ernst’s cane box as props to illustrate his song. They are very much not okay with this.
- Harry: What the hell?!
- Preacher Man: Unsurprisingly, yes. He is very devoted to his church, and is often looking for ways to improve and expand it.
- Saintly Church: Clearly sees his church as such, and in fairness he’s never portrayed as a bad person, just as inconsiderate and pushy about his beliefs.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Never actually leaves the station on screen. He just kinda disappears between acts. Granted, his participation in Axel’s Ballad Waltz could perhaps indicate that he’s put his plans for the station on hold.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Basically sees himself as an inspirational visionary. Everyone else find him unbearable, and his entire audience dart out of the room midway through his musical number.
Sven Sidney
Sven Sidney
- Played by: Peter Rangmar
A self-proclaimed Renaissance Man who has just finished working on a statue for the station.
- Artsy Beret: Never seen without it.
- Ascended Extra: Gets an extra scene (and a much happier ending) in the film, where he gets to partake in the celebratory reopening of Swedum Station.
- Camp Straight: Very flamboyant, though the one person he has No Sense of Personal Space with is Mona.
- Creator Breakdown: Embraces these, feeling that they improve his art. Given what we see of his work, this seems quite questionable.
- He's Back!: At the end of the film, after realizing that the station has been reopened, he regains all of his gleeful optimism and returns there with his statue, finally getting to install it.
- Keet: During his more lighthearted moments.
- Large Ham: Quite an emotional fellow, to say the least. Made only more apparent with his severe Mood Swings and tendency for Milking the Giant Cow.
- Schedule Slip: Axel calls him out on delivering his statue two years past the deadline, completely missing the anniversary it was meant to celebrate. Sven defends his delay by arguing that art takes time.
- Terrible Artist: His statue is amazingly lifelike (for obvious reasons) but his paintings are rather... simplistic.
- Waiting for a Break: Relies on his laundry company to support himself, and does in fact use his company car to transport his statue.
Rafael
Rafael
- Played by: Jan Rippe
Sven Sidney’s assistant and pupil, who doesn’t seem to share his teacher’s passion for the arts.
- Beleaguered Assistant: It’s indicated that he very much doesn’t have an easy time dealing with Sven Sidney’s mood swings.
- Clothing Reflects Personality: Unlike Sven, he’s still wearing his cleaner’s uniform to the statue presentation, showing his lack of commitment to his artistic endeavors.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: His sung lines consist of him calling himself the most incomparably useless out of everyone present.
- Messy Hair: He has long, unkempt (likely prematurely) grayed hair.
- The Quiet One: Gets only a single line of dialogue.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Sven Sidney’s red.
- The Singing Mute: Just about. His one line is practically forced out of him by his boss, but he casually expresses his feelings during The Eleven O'Clock Number.
- Smarter Than They Look: Nothing about him indicates that he would be particularly intelligent, but he does successfully answer Sven Sidney’s quiz.
- Snobs Versus Slobs: The slob to Sven Sidney’s snob.
- Take That!: Provides an affectionate one to painter Bruno Liljefors. When Sven asks him what this artist said after painting the Mona Lisa, the answer turns out to be ”Damn it! It became a fox!” The joke being that he couldn’t not make an animal painting if he tried.
Rudolf; The Eternal Train Traveller
Rudolf; The Eternal Train Traveller
- Played by: Per Fritzell
A statue Sven Sidney has spent the last couple years of his life sculpting.
- Ascended Extra: Gets an additional scene in the film, where both he and his creator finally get to earn their happy ending.
- Belated Happy Ending: Gets one in the film, where he is finally installed at the station once it reopens.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: As he comes to life right as Axel has confirmed that the station has been shut down, his song has him bemoan that he has become completely useless as a statue.
- Living Statue: He inexplicably comes to life just in time to sing.
- Magical Realism: One of few supernatural elements in an otherwise fairly realistic — if incredibly wacky — story.
- Minor Character, Major Song: To the point of not even being sapient outside of his one song.
- Naked People Are Funny: Played by a nude Per Fritzell, with only a strategically placed suitcase to avoid Male Frontal Nudity.
- Stylistic Suck: Averted. He’s the sole art piece of Sven Sidney that we see which is actually well-made. Being played by a real actor half the time helps.
- Talent Double: An unusual combination of this and Fake Shemp. He’s ”played” by an actual statue for much of his screentime in the film, but replaced by an actual actor when he needs to sing and well, be alive!
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Nobody seems to be the least bit surprised to see a singing statue. Contrast this with the possibly imaginary ensamble from the Daddy, I want an Italian number, which the characters do react to.
The Visitor
The Vistor
- Played by: Folke Lindh
A man who shows up at Gerhard Vilén’s office, waiting in Bain for him to return.
- Ascended Extra: Only ever mentioned in the stage version. However, in the film he shows up in a brand new minor subplot.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: His preferred method of helping his children get in touch with each other is to give them all half of a bag. He’s either done this a lot, or many others have had the same idea.
- Disappeared Dad: He apparently has a tendency to abandon his children shortly after they’re born.
- Doorstop Baby: As it turns out, he is at Gerhard’s office to deliver him one.
- Faking the Dead: Faked his death as an excuse to adandon his family. It’s implied that he’s done this many times over.
- The Ghost: In the stage version.
- The Reveal: His identity and goals are a mystery until the very end of the film.
- The Voiceless: Never says a word. His only “dialogue” comes in the form of the letter he leaves behind.
- Walking Spoiler: You really can’t say much at all about him without giving away the Twist Ending of the story.
