FESTEN. To 27 May.

Birmingham/Tour

FESTEN
dramatised by David Eldridge from the film and play by Thomas Vinterberg, Mogens Rukov and Bo Hr. Hansen.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre to 18 February then tour to 27 May 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 16 Feb 2.30pm
Audio-described 16 Feb 7.30pm
BSL Signed 17 Feb
Runs 2hr One interval

TICKETS: 0121 236 4455
www.birmingham-rep.co.uk (Birmingham)
Review: Jan Pick 7 February

An uncomfortable evening, but well worth it.
As celebrations go, this certainly was the one from hell. As Helge’s family gather for his 60th birthday party, skeletons start falling out of the closet with a vengeance. The black humour of Festen, a dramatisation by David Eldridge based on the Dogme film and play, lies in the recognition of those awful moments when someone says something better left unsaid, and the awkward silences and the rush to pretend that it has not happened, which has been experienced at some time by almost everyone in the theatre.

The play begins slowly, then exerts an inexorable grip as it intensifies and descends into a deeply uncomfortable exploration of family taboos, silences and cover-ups which are painfully exposed over the evening.

The setting, a grey box stage with sliding doors, a dinner table that moves and a bed that rises out of the floor, cleverly creates the atmosphere of the evening, superficially bland with hidden depths and unexpected surprises.

The cast, headed by Rupert Frazer as Helge, and Belinda Sinclair as Else, his deliberately self-deceiving wife, work well as an ensemble, and there are some beautifully observed moments from Miranda Foster as the sister who knows and desperately does not want to, and Robert Goodale as the guest who wants to go home but cannot. Camilla Arfwedson, Neal Barry and Will Barton make a great trio of servants, and Laurence Mitchell is excellent as the prodigal son determined to gatecrash his father’s party. But the laurels of the evening go to Christian Coulson as Christian, the son with a secret that will plunge the party into painful chaos.

Christian: Christian Coulson
Mette: Lucianne McEvoy
Michael: Laurence Mitchell
Lars: Will Barton
Helene: Miranda Foster
Else: Belinda Sinclair
Helge: Rupert Frazer
Pia: Camilla Arfwedson
Helmut: David Beames
Grandfather: Walter Hall
Poul: Robert Goodale
Kim: Neal Barry
Gbatokai: Mark Theodore
Child: Sinead Goodall
Alice Knight
Mae Wright

Director: Rufus Norris
Designer: Ian MacNeil
Lighting: Jean Kalman
Music: Orlando Gough
Sound: Paul Arditti
Costume: Joan Wadge
Fight director: Terry King
Associate director: Tim Stark
Associate lighting: Fiona Simpson

2006-02-12 13:49:30