The Celebration (Das Fest)
by Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov
Adapted for the stage by Bo hr. Hansen
German adaption by Renate Bleibtreu / Adaption by Anne Lenk and David Heiligers
"I have written two speeches. You can choose which one it should be. One is green, the other is yellow."
The family, says Thomas Vinterberg, always wins. It survives the crime that it commits. It holds fast, when outside everything falls apart. It gives birth to monsters and sorrow, happiness and love. It is a place of displacement and lies, closeness and longing. It punishes and takes revenge, it embraces and forgives. In it, everyone feels shame and guilt, trust and security – whether perpetrator or victim, whether acting or reacting. It is a refuge and an imposition, a nest and a prison. One is thrown into it. One cannot escape it. Family is for life.
Helge Klingenfeldt-Hansen, father of four children, is celebrating his 60th birthday. Relatives and friends have come together, and their happiness at seeing one another is mingled with old conflicts. It would be a typical celebration – had not Linda recently committed suicide. And if it weren’t for the speech given by her twin brother Christian: he tells the assembled group a story from their childhood and gives it the title "When father wanted to come into the bathroom..." Her son, says mother Else, always had a vivid imagination, even as a boy. And father Helge: "My family was always the most important thing in my life. Watching you, my children, grow up, was the most beautiful thing I experienced."
German adaption by Renate Bleibtreu / Adaption by Anne Lenk and David Heiligers
"I have written two speeches. You can choose which one it should be. One is green, the other is yellow."
The family, says Thomas Vinterberg, always wins. It survives the crime that it commits. It holds fast, when outside everything falls apart. It gives birth to monsters and sorrow, happiness and love. It is a place of displacement and lies, closeness and longing. It punishes and takes revenge, it embraces and forgives. In it, everyone feels shame and guilt, trust and security – whether perpetrator or victim, whether acting or reacting. It is a refuge and an imposition, a nest and a prison. One is thrown into it. One cannot escape it. Family is for life.
Helge Klingenfeldt-Hansen, father of four children, is celebrating his 60th birthday. Relatives and friends have come together, and their happiness at seeing one another is mingled with old conflicts. It would be a typical celebration – had not Linda recently committed suicide. And if it weren’t for the speech given by her twin brother Christian: he tells the assembled group a story from their childhood and gives it the title "When father wanted to come into the bathroom..." Her son, says mother Else, always had a vivid imagination, even as a boy. And father Helge: "My family was always the most important thing in my life. Watching you, my children, grow up, was the most beautiful thing I experienced."
Director Anne Lenk
Stage Halina Kratochwil
Costumes Sibylle Wallum
Musical director Leo Schmidthals
Marco Scherle
Dramaturgy David Heiligers
Premiere on January 20, 2017
Jörg PoseHelge, the father
Barbara SchnitzlerElse, the mother
Alexander KhuonChristian, the oldest son
Lisa HrdinaHelene, the daughter
Camill JammalMichael, the youngest son
Kathleen MorgeneyerMette, Michael's wife
Thorsten HierseKemal, Helene's friend
Franziska MachensPia, Christian's childhood friend
Bernd MossHelmut, the toastmaster
Jürgen HuthGrandfather
Katharina MatzGrandmother
Michael GerberUncle Leif
Damian Fink, Josefine Jellinek, Lea Metscher, Leosander Scheithauer
Helge, the father
Else, the mother
Christian, the oldest son
Helene, the daughter
Michael, the youngest son
Mette, Michael's wife
Kemal, Helene's friend
Pia, Christian's childhood friend
Helmut, the toastmaster
Grandfather
Grandmother
Uncle Leif
Damian Fink, Josefine Jellinek, Lea Metscher, Leosander Scheithauer
What's on
PREMIERE
Artistic Direction: Sofie Hüsler, Kristina Stang
Afterwards: Follow-up discussion with Henny & Ponger author Nils Mohl. Moderation: Annette Wostrak from LesArt.
Aftershow party at the Bar
Aftershow party at the Bar
Box
19.00
Follow-up discussion with Henny & Ponger author Nils Mohl. Moderatior: Annette Wostrak from "LesArt"
sold out
perh. remaining tickets at evening box office
perh. remaining tickets at evening box office
PERFORMANCE CHANGED
Director: Hanna Rudolph
Due to an illness in the ensemble, we are sorry to cancel tonight's performance of Liebe, einfach außerirdisch by René Pollesch (director: René Pollesch). Instead, we will show Tagebuch eines Wahnsinnigen (Diary of a Madman) by Nikolai Gogol (director: Hanna Rudolph). Already purchased tickets for Liebe, einfach außerirdischcan now be rebooked or returned at the box office within 14 days.
DT Bühne.
20:00 - 21.15
The resulting intimacy brings the story oppressively close and increases the dramatic and emotional tension. Jörg Pose as Father is not an unsympathetic figure – on the contrary: you feel his emotion as the whole room sings him a song, and believe in his love for his family, which he constantly reiterates. At first, he refuses point-blank to remember his acts of abuse, playing the overworked manager who can’t possibly remember everything.
Alexander Khuon as Christian, his tortured son, achieves a fine balance between Anger towards his perpetrator father and the subservience of a damaged child. His revenge begins dispassionately and coldly, but escalates into angry despair when, after a few shocked seconds, the well-wishers simply carry on as before and resolutely look away. This is especially true of his mother, who knew about the rape of the twins, but did not intervene.
Barbara Schnitzler allows this obsequious, well-groomed lady to blossom in the shadow of her husband, whom she adores against her better judgement, as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Christian's revelations also open up sensitive wounds among other family members, including the daughter Helene (Lisa Hrdina), her boyfriend Kemal (Thorsten Hierse), the younger son Michael (Camill Jammal) and Christian's teenage girlfriend Pia (Franziska Machens).
Everyone, whether they like it or not, including the audience, is stuck in the same boat – with the water rising all around. The end is a relief for the family, but – and this comes across in Anne Lenk’s evocative production – atonement is hardly possible. In the Kammerspiele of the Deutsches Theater, the director Anne Lenk turns the audience into guests at this celebration that goes awry. At the start, you receive a glass of sparkling wine and sit in the middle of the set designed by Halina Kratochwil on tiered seats around the small stage area. The actors Keep coming to sit among the audience and address them directly.
The resulting intimacy brings the story oppressively close and increases the dramatic and emotional tension. Jörg Pose as Father is not an unsympathetic figure – on the contrary: you feel his emotion as the whole room sings him a song, and believe in his love for his family, which he constantly reiterates. At first, he refuses point-blank to remember his acts of abuse, playing the overworked manager who can’t possibly remember everything.
Alexander Khuon as Christian, his tortured son, achieves a fine balance between Anger towards his perpetrator father and the subservience of a damaged child. His revenge begins dispassionately and coldly, but escalates into angry despair when, after a few shocked seconds, the well-wishers simply carry on as before and resolutely look away. This is especially true of his mother, who knew about the rape of the twins, but did not intervene.
Barbara Schnitzler allows this obsequious, well-groomed lady to blossom in the shadow of her husband, whom she adores against her better judgement, as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Christian's revelations also open up sensitive wounds among other family members, including the daughter Helene (Lisa Hrdina), her boyfriend Kemal (Thorsten Hierse), the younger son Michael (Camill Jammal) and Christian's teenage girlfriend Pia (Franziska Machens).
Everyone, whether they like it or not, including the audience, is stuck in the same boat – with the water rising all around. The end is a relief for the family, but – and this comes across in Anne Lenk’s evocative production – atonement is hardly possible.
In her faithfulness to the work, Anne Lenk succeeds in bringing an impressive drama about rape to the stage. Lenk and her dramaturg David Heiligers place the audience in the middle of the action of this perfectly planned family celebration which gets totally out of hand. With a free choice of seating, you might end up sitting next to Katharina Matz and Jürgen Huth, who as the grandparents smile benignly at the turmoil unfolding around them. This concept of being part of the action has been tried out several times at the Deutsches Theater, recently, for example, in ''Fathers and Sons'' and ''Downfall of the Egotist Fatzer''. But it has never been as appropriate as in this intimate play about a family gathered in a confined space, no longer able to evade the truths that have been brushed under the carpet. The second fortunate decision of this entertaining evening is that Lenk/Heiligers stay fairly close to the original text, despite taking some liberties (especially in the first half) [...]
In her faithfulness to the work, Anne Lenk succeeds in bringing an impressive drama about rape to the stage.
Alexander Khuon convincingly plays the son Christian, who divulges his family's secret, and Jörg Pose is his match as repressed father Helge. When you go to see ''The Celebration'' in the Kammerspiele of the Deutsches Theater, you are handed a glass of sparkling wine as you go in. The cheerful, grinning master of ceremonies for the evening (Bernd Moss) also hands out light sticks, known in kids’ birthday-party Jargon as ''bendy lights'': ''You'll need it'', he says. [...]
Alexander Khuon convincingly plays the son Christian, who divulges his family's secret, and Jörg Pose is his match as repressed father Helge.
No one listens to him. Khuon Plays the accusing son broodingly, as someone who constantly escapes into fantasies, so that even with prior knowledge of the play, you find yourself believing for a moment that Lenk might dare to present the whole drama as a figment of the imagination. A bold move, uncomfortably close to the real world, in which rapists like to discredit their victims.
At the end the audience is – shockingly – almost relieved that the accusations are true. A well-developed psychological thriller. First there’s a glass of sparkling wine, then normal wine is poured: at the DT, the members of the audience become part of the celebration [...] The oldest son Christian (Alexander Khuon) comes out with his abuse charges against his father at first haltingly, then with increasing determination.
No one listens to him. Khuon Plays the accusing son broodingly, as someone who constantly escapes into fantasies, so that even with prior knowledge of the play, you find yourself believing for a moment that Lenk might dare to present the whole drama as a figment of the imagination. A bold move, uncomfortably close to the real world, in which rapists like to discredit their victims.
At the end the audience is – shockingly – almost relieved that the accusations are true. A well-developed psychological thriller.