Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen, Katrine Wiedemann/Royal Danish Theatre
The Triumph of Professional Diversity
By Me Lund
What is special about Danish theatre? Is it especially raw, funny, musical, political, beautiful, feminist or anachronistic? The truth is that you could say yes to all of these things and illustrate the answer with excellent examples from all over the country. In other words: what is unique about Danish theatre is its professional diversity.
The heritage of Holberg, Strindberg and Ibsen
The Danish theatre tradition hearkens back to the 1700s, when Ludvig Holberg – the Danish Molière, as he is called – created the first Danish language theatre. His inspiration came from central Europe, but in a very short time the theatre felt very Danish. And back when the fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen strolled its streets 200 years ago, people could say that, in a cultural sense, Copenhagen was Denmark. And that the Royal Danish Theatre was Copenhagen, for it was here the nation’s self-understanding was put into artistic form.
When the dramatists August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen – respectively from Sweden and Norway – wrote directly for Copenhagen theatres at the end of the 19th century, the theatre’s modern aesthetics and its ethical debates were still the springboard for refined discourse. Although refined discourse continued in exclusive society, the authority of the theatre declined, when the world expanded after the world wars. And after the legendary happening of the alternative theatre Solvognen [The Sun Chariot] in 1974 – when its members, dressed as Santa Clauses, invaded a large department store and gave gifts directly from the shelves to gaping passers-by, Danish theatre has never regained its old monopoly to determine what is cultured.
So, even though Denmark has a distinctive national stage at its disposal, the Royal Danish Theatre, which has enjoyed the beneficence of the politicians in recent years and is undergoing expansive development with prestigious new buildings at the harbour front, Danish theatre is much more than this flagship. In both a geographic and an artistic respect, it has a very broad spectrum and is very democratic.
Professional theatre for everyone
Thus, it is possible to provide professional theatre to all regions of the country. And if, for example, there is no local theatre, regional stage or provincial theatre, modern, multifunctional cultural centres have been built in grand style in recent years, making touring attractive for large theatres and an increasing number of private producers.
The spread of theatre activity has been the result of many years of a cultural policy that has very consciously supported locally-based and touring theatre in the provinces, insisting that theatre is many things and appeals to many different types of audience – a good example is our unique children’s theatre, which has made its artistic trademark the ability to view the world from a child’s perspective, rather than an adult’s.
Until now, a succession of Danish governments has insisted on the value of making theatre available to everyone – pretty much from cradle to grave. And as late as the 2004/2005 season, well over five million Danes have repaid this policy by buying well over three million theatre tickets. That is truly impressive!
Danish Theatre - a fertile ecosystem
Thus, support for Danish theatre has created a fertile ecosystem in which the exchange between different echelons has begun to function relatively well in recent years – as demonstrated, for example, by the fact that more management posts at larger theatres are now occupied by artists from the alternative environment. However, as the overall economy has become tighter, we hardly find any permanent ensembles in Danish theatre. Artists – even on the national stage – are always migrating, always on the way to new places.
This can be seen as a weakness, which is certainly is. One of the possible explanations is that, to date, Danish theatres have toured relatively little with successful performances truly deserving a wider international audience – it is simply too costly to lure away actors for these unplanned activities.
At the same time, however, it must be noted that this fragmented community has created a number of very strong individuals – for example, dramatists such as Astrid Saalbach, Line Knutzon and Nikoline Werdelin, the director Kirsten Dehlholm or such constellations of couples as director Peter Langdal/scenographer Karin Betz or playwright Jokum Rohde/director Katrine Wiedemann. They are all leading lights in Danish theatre today despite their nomad existence and ever changing collaborative partners.
It can also be said that ideas – when they are there – spread quickly in Danish theatre: for example, the virtual explosion of new Danish drama in the 1990s, from which we profit immensely.
At that time, it was not only small and medium-size theatres that derived energy from concentrating on the lifestyle problems of the new generation and their clever, imagery-dense use of language. It was a project that the Royal Danish Theatre also backed – with loud boos from the bourgeoisie, of course – by inviting in young, new playwrights along with their regular directors/scenographers.
It was close to a scandal, but the effect was telling: Theatre Denmark focused on new drama. Clearly, it still does – now even with special production support programs and with the help of readings and other efforts abroad, for example. Not long after the heyday of the mid-1990s, we finally got a genuine training program for playwrights, located at the regional stage in Aarhus (www.dramatikeruddannelsen.dk), which wisely builds on experience gained from the lifestyle comedy of that time. And at the school and among experienced playwrights, you can track the general shift in focus and generations: Danish drama has lifted its gaze from kitchen conversations and sofa arrangements to take a hard look at broader, more politically conscious dramas.
Cutbacks threaten creative diversity
Unfortunately, with the cutbacks in theatre funding of recent years, it looks as if the environment will change in years to come. From the government’s side, it looks as though there will be theatre closings at all echelons. The reason is primarily ideological and has to do with a de-emphasis on state-supported arts, based on the dictum that, if people want to see quality art, they can pay for it themselves. If they can.
Of course, this does not only threaten the broad range of theatre and the opportunities for the individual stage artist to keep in form. It will also have consequences for affiliated artistic genres – film and television shows, which are experiencing a great artistic and popular boom at the moment in Denmark and abroad.
Denmark in dialogue with the world
Concerns about the prospect of state impediments, however, should not overshadow the fact that Danish theatre has much to offer – even in an international context.
As demonstrated elsewhere at this site, there are many individuals and theatres that have the potential to continue the dialogue with the world that has been going on here at home for a long time. For over 25 years, we have had major, annually recurring theatre festivals with guest performances from all over the world, arranged by the Copenhagen International Theatre (KIT), which have led artists and audience alike to an appreciation for the artistic expression of other countries and cultures. The theatre’s latest initiative is P@art.dk – an international showcase for Danish performing arts, which will be launched in October 2006 in Copenhagen.
We have already seen this openness, when the international company, the Odin Theatre, was received with open arms by the provincial town of Holstebro 40 years ago or when Cantabile 2 became a provincial theatre in Vordingborg in 1990 – both run by Italian-born artists, whose deeply original artistic work today represents Denmark on tours all over the world.
Another example from the opposite end of Danish theatre is that, when the wave of international musicals washed over Denmark 10-15 years ago, it showed not only that we had commercially savvy theatre managers and artists who could manage the task. We were also ourselves capable of mounting musicals of a correspondingly high calibre – for example, Sebastian’s productions for children and adults, which were performed in several of our neighbouring countries.
And as a particularly welcome trend, a number of the world-class guest directors who have come here in recent years have returned to Denmark to work directly with our artists on productions that have toured all over the world – for example, the Betty Nansen Theatre’s Woyzeck under Robert Wilson’s direction.
It was an artistic high point in Danish theatre. It was raw. It was beautiful. It was stylistically astounding. But whether it was especially Danish is another matter, which leads directly back to the starting point for Danish theatre: Holberg and those vital influences from without.
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Me Lund (MA). Theatre critic and chair of the Association of Danish Theatre Journalists.
