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Festen

  • opened: 3/25/2004
  • closed: 5/1/2004
  • Almeida Theatre
  • Box Office: 020 7359 4404
  • Details: To 1 May 2004.
  • Summary: Grimly gripping stage adaptation of the acclaimed Dogme film. Jonny Lee Miller is outstanding as the truth-telling Christian, the son who reveals his father's abusive past at the latter's 60th birthday bash. Visit theARCHIVE for more. The film that launched Danish cinema's countercultural backlash - the famous Dogme aesthetic that dared to strip the form back to its essentials - has been turned into a stage-play by David Eldridge, directed by Rufus Norris at the smartest theatrical address in North London. Jonny Lee Miller stars as Christian, a grief-stricken young man who stands up at an extravagant birthday bash for his tyrannical father and lets the darkest of family secrets come tumbling out of the closet; the critics have so far been greatly impressed. In the Daily Telegraph, Charles Spencer was ecstatic: 'Festen's astonishing juxtaposition of laugh-outloud social comedy and aching hurt and grief is perfectly caught by Norris and his wonderful cast. Jonny Lee Miller's suffering Christian is all the more moving for being so poignantly understated, while Tom Hardy brings a terrifying edge of violence to the stage as his less succcessful brother.' In the Guardian, Michael Billington approved that: 'The brilliance of this version lies in the tension between the decorousness of the occasion and the dire nature of the revelations; and the horror is even more acute because of the heightened absurdity. Above all, Norris reminds us this is a work about social hypocrisy. It offers us a formal celebration in which no one stands up to speak without first tapping their glass: what it uncovers is a world of paternal abuse, wifely complicity and racism.' Paul Taylor in the Independent also heaped superlatives on the show: 'The greatness of the production derives, in part, from the fact that, while intensely theatrical, it feels like primary experience rather than 'theatre'. Jonny Lee Miller's heart-stopping performance as the whistle-blowing hero achieves greatness because it's as if someone has wandered into the proceedings from real life.' 'I was mesmerised by Festen,' declared Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard, 'a compelling thriller of the serious sort. It faces up to incest, suggests what long-term damage the victims suffer... In its original form, Festen launched the minimalist Dogme 95 Movement. Now Ian MacNeil's wonderful sets allow an equivalent freedom. Jean Kalman's lighting and Orlando Gough's music heighten the ominous mood. The stage is a bare, black space on which objects keep rising dramatically into view.' Benedict Nightingale in the Times took a sterner view: 'Does it add more to London's artistic life than, say, When Harry Met Sally? Despite Rufus Norris's best directorial efforts, it transfers even more awkwardly to the theatre than that movie. It's fine to use the same giant bed as the centre of simultaneous action in three bedrooms, but when that bed must also be the tree to which Christian's disbelieving brother Michael ties him, the imagination begins to rebel. Why (it asks) not rent the video?' In the Daily Mail, Michael Coveney agreed that the ''home movie' feel is lost on the stage' but thought that, 'stunningly well lit by Jean Kalman, the show amounts to a considerable smack in the chops.' In the Daily Express, Robert Gore-Langton struck a discordant note: 'A bunch of decidedly un-Danish actors turn this quirky, dark Scandinavian treat into a plonkingly obvious and very English middle-class revenge comedy.. What with this and the recent When Harry Met Sally, how many more hit films are we to see served up as plays?' In the Sunday Independent, Kate Bassett asked the question: 'You may wonder why anyone would rework Thomas Vinterberg's celebrated Dogme film for the stage... Eldridge's adaptation.. isn't as aesthetically radical and you may miss Vinterberg's disturbing hand-held camerawork and expressionistic editing techniques. However, this devastating family showdown becomes riveting as soon as the seemingly mild son decimates his father Helge's birthday banquet.' In the Sunday Telegraph, Daisy Garnett said simply: 'You should see the play whether you have seen the film or not. The story loses none of its impact on repeated viewing and it works terrifically well on stage; a credit to Norris, who has used what might be a limitation - a small and dark space - to heighten and intensify the claustrophobic atmosphere.' In the Mail on Sunday, Georgina Brown awarded four stars: 'Norris keeps the surprises coming and there are tough performances from an impressive cast, including a majestically unruffled Jane Asher wearing a ruffled jacket and a brooding Jonny Lee Miller..'
  • Author: David Eldridge after Thomas Vinterberg
  • Director: Rufus Norris
  • Composer: Orlando Gough
  • Lyricist: n/aSet Designer: Ian MacNeil
  • Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman
  • Costume Designer: Joan Wadge
  • Choreographer: n/a
  • Cast Details: Jonny Lee Miller (Christian), Tom Hardy (Michael), Claire Rushbrook (Helene); Lisa Palfrey (Mette); Robert Pugh (Helge); Jane Asher (Else); Michael Thomas (Helmut); Sam Cox (Poul)