The German daily Der Tagesspiegel writes that Lars Norén was one of the most important playwrights in Europe and compares him to August Strindberg.
During an interview around the turn of the millennium, Norén told Tagesspiegel's Rüdiger Schaper that he did not like Strindberg, but called him "unpleasant school reading".
Norén preferred Ibsen's crystal clear dramaturgy over Strindberg, which according to Norén made one plunge into chaos.
But, writes Tagesspiegel: If there was any contemporary playwright who understood how to tear up and masterfully direct the everyday, sexual and social chaos, it was Lars Norén.
"Own, enigmatic style"
The Catalan morning newspaper El Periodico calls Lars Norén one of the most well-known contemporary playwrights in Scandinavia: "He was as well known abroad as in his home country and his name was often associated with Swedish giants such as August Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman."
But according to El periodico, he also had his own, enigmatic style with a lot of blackness: "His work usually revolved around family relationships, fathers' tyranny, children's rebellion, sexual deviations and the madness that constantly threatens."
Le Figaro, one of the leading French morning newspapers, also places Norén in the same line as Strindberg and Bergman.
Special attention is paid to the play Poussière, which he wrote and staged for the French National Theater Comédie-Française 2018, and a not insignificant part of the obituary is devoted to the play 7: 3 and the subsequent scandal.
"Dramatic genius"
The Swedish-language Finnish daily newspaper Österbottens tidning writes that Lars Norén made a huge impression in Culture and Theater Sweden.
The actor Henning Jensen, who worked with Lars Norén in 2008 when Norén directed Kan Munks Ordet at the Royal Theater, says in the Danish newspaper Politiken that the meeting with Norén is the closest he has come to a dramatic genius during his career as an actor.