Dubai: As we approach a man seated in the corner of the museum, he gets up and extends his hand to me. “Hello, I’m Alfred Nobel. Nice to meet you.”
Dressed in a 1896 three-piece black suit comprising a blazer, a vest, a white shirt and a silver fob chain, 58-year-old Peter Sundh is the spitting image of Alfred Nobel, the lauded innovator, philanthropist and founder of the Nobel Prize.
Sundh arrived in Dubai two days ago, in time for Monday’s opening ceremony for the city’s Nobel Museum, a temporary exhibition at Children’s City.
Before discovering his close resemblance to Nobel, Sundh worked as an engineer, an actor in children’s theatre, a travel agent and a tour guide, among other things. For the past 13 years, he has been a full-time Nobel impersonator at museums in Sweden and Nobel Memorial Weeks around the world, employed primarily by the Nobel Museum in his hometown, Karlskoga.
Enhancing the links between the two men, Sundh’s hometown is also the site of Nobel’s summer home in Sweden. “If Alfred hadn’t had the Swedish home in Karlskoga, there would be no Nobel Prize,” he explains.
Sundh also re-enacts one of his favourite comedy skits as Nobel. He will sit in a room incredibly still while another guide starts the tour. “Everyone thinks I’m a doll, I sit so very still,” he says, smiling. “And then I interrupt the guide and say ‘I can tell my own story, thank you.’ That always makes people laugh.”
With a lifelong interest in history, Sundh emphasises his role as a storyteller, rather than a mere comedy character. “I never do this as a party trick. Never, even if a museum asks me to appear for a big occasion,” says Sundh. “I’m a professional storyteller, not a funny figure. If you want somebody to be funny, you could have clowns, but not Alfred Nobel.”
Sundh also reflects on the difficulties of living part of his life as a different person. “You can’t take the character home or you’d mentally die after a while,” says Sundh, who sometimes leads the hourlong guided tour three or four times a day. “I’ve done 4,500 monologues as Alfred and I have learnt to separate that character from myself as Peter. I have to be very careful,” he says.
From the way Sundh talks about his alter ego, it is clear there is deep admiration behind the impersonation. “The Nobel prizes are for people who have done something good for mankind in the world. In 1895, nobody thought in that direction,” he says.
The Swedish actor has dedicated the last decade or so of his life to the research and faithful representation of a man he holds in great esteem. “I’m interested in the story around the house, his life in Sweden and his personality. I’ve studied the letters, how he wrote, how he spoke, how he met people and his body language. And his work, he was ... a true workaholic,” he says.
Sundh considers himself an expert in all things Nobel. “There’s not yet been a question I haven’t been able to answer,” he says. “I surprise myself sometimes that I even know the answer.”
Though he has only been in Dubai for a few days, Sundh remarks how friendly people are here. “The Nobel Prize and Alfred Nobel are not very known here. But people are so open minded and if you start to tell a story, people listen. And as a storyteller, that is the best thing that could happen,” he says.
This Nobel impersonator is returning to Sweden on Wednesday, but enthusiasts can visit the Nobel Museum until it closes on March 5.
— Alison Xiao is an intern at Gulf News
