NORWAY'S JON FOSSE GETS NOBEL LIT PRIZE FOR INNOVATIVE PLAYS

NORWAY'S Jon Fosse, whose plays are among the most widely staged of any contemporary playwright in the world, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

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Sometimes compared to Samuel Beckett, another Nobel-winning playwright, Fosse's work is minimalistic, relying on simple language which delivers its message through rhythm, melody and silence.

The Swedish Academy said the 64-year-old was honoured for his "innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable."

"Fosse presents everyday situations that are instantly recognisable in our own lives. His radical reduction of language and dramatic action expresses the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest terms," the jury said.