Modern Gothic thrillers

In its style and form, Jokum Rohde’s drama is greatly inspired by art of the interbellum period, especially German expressionism.  His work moves in a very personal and effective field between pop culture and elitist art.  Oldies but goodies, citations from film classics, character names from TV/film alternate with great ideas and philosophical considerations and references.  Clear, naked references to other works are combined with the interbellum spirit, history and way of living.  The upheaval in lifestyles, the ways art is created, and extreme political and human attitudes are in focus.

Jokum Rohde writes about the mind and its existential twistings and turnings.  He explores dramatically the demonic in the human, the eternal choice between good and evil.  This is seen in his major work Pinocchios aske [Pinocchio’s Ashes], in which Judge Wolff burns books and battles culture, and the only pure and beloved creature, the child Miranda, is murdered.

Jokum Rohde’s dramas are removed from time, place and recognisability.  In Rohde’s special, dark universe, nothing is straightforward or what it appears to be on the surface.  The familiar streets and places – especially, in Copenhagen – that are often in his plays do not look like reality.  They are the bearers of mood, of emotion, more than concrete physical localities in Jokum Rohde’s universe.

These are dramas about people under pressure – people who do not fit into the narrow framework of normality.  These lives on the margin of society that populate Rohde’s works are found in strange, deserted settings and the outskirts of cities.  Here, a human struggle to fit into an ordinary life without losing oneself and one’s idiosyncrasies is played out.  And it is a struggle these unique people are doomed to lose in the modern world.  That is why Jokum Rohde’s works also have a melancholy tone with an underlying subtle black humour. There is a fundamental pain in his plots – a pain that accompanies the fact that people and worlds are destroyed everyday in the hallowed name of development.

Current productions

Århundredet / The Century
(2005)
Spanning from the trenches of World War I to the collective suicide in Jonestown, the focal point of this piece is a man, who in order to escape the hell of war agrees to make a hell on earth.  He agrees to become a completely evil person.

Pinocchios aske / Pinocchio’s Ashes
(2005)
A prohibition on art and culture has been imposed in the city of Kongstad. Judge Wolff is to implement it but becomes a human wreck, like the other characters in this expressionistic, modern drama about the role of art in our times and our lives.
Translations: Danish, Swedish, English and Norwegian

Nero
(1998)
One of Rohde’s most important works. The drama takes place one night in Copenhagen and mixes such genres as melodrama, thriller, myth, opera and, especially, the film noir style that is so characteristic of Jokum Rohde’s dramas. Nero is an elderly invalid who seeks out and is visited by his former lover Carmen and her friend Johnny.
Translations: Danish, Swedish, English and German

Det virkelige liv I & II / Real Life I & II
(1996)
In an exquisite collaboration with director Katrine Wiedemann and scenographer Christian Friedländer, Jokum Rohde created two performances about Det virkelige liv [Real Life]. An existence inhabited by a range of marginal lives in a forgotten quarter of the city, where their quest for human contact does not end in any sort of classic happy ending.
Translations: English and German

Review Excerpts

”It is an altogether unique and grotesque tone Rohde strikes with gutsy references to Steven Spielberg, Fritz Lang, David Bowie, you name them. The result is thought-provoking …”
Helsingborg Dagblad (SE), Pinocchios aske

”You want to object, to stop the associations, but move with the play into a world of dreams, darkness and blood.  This is powerful theatre …”
Dagbladet Norge (NO), Pinocchios aske

”Jokum Rohde… schreibt keine geradlinigen texte. Er reisst Situationen an. Aus den Sätzen müssen Schauspieler und Regie ihr eigenes Konzept entwickeln.“
DPA Lübeck (DE), Nero

„Ein entrinnen aus sieser Schicksalsgemeinschaft ist unmöglich. So führt der dänische Autor noch einmal vor, was Satre einst vorgedacht hat: das existenzialistische Geworfensein des Menschen in Welt.“
Lübecker Nachrichten (DE), Nero

International Collaboration
Pinocchios aske, The Royal National Theatre, Stockholm
Pinocchios aske, Rogaland Theatre, Stavanger, Norway