The Forgiving Tragedian

Bo hr. Hansen is a humorist. His dramas are absurd lifestyle comedies with quick, cheerful lines and scenes from the life of the smart, young middle class, particularly, in the 1990s. But he is also a tragedian.  Deep down, the characters in his plays are solitary and misunderstood and cannot really communicate even with those closest to them.  They try to veil reality with smart remarks and something that looks like “cool” – until everything falls apart for them.

Bo hr. Hansen was educated at the Danish Film School and has had, for many years, a close collaboration with film director Thomas Vinterberg on a number of films. They have a common tone of gentle, painful melancholy that the characters hide with rapid humour and an ironic distance to life.  Their works are very moving, because we laugh and are entertained, even though we will never forget the seriousness of the emotions. 

The culmination is Bo hr. Hansen’s theatrical adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukow’s script for Festen (1997).  In Bo hr. Hansen’s theatrical version, Festen’s unique blend of seriousness and absurdity, of tragedy and comedy, acquires an almost Ibsen-esque family dimension.  The drama of the son Christian’s horrific and painful coming-to-terms with his father is at the centre, as the story and development of the characters unfold during one fateful night.

There is no doubt that Bo hr. Hansen loves and forgives his characters. They are what they are. 
But for reasons: their self-esteem is low, and they crave contact and closeness with other people but without daring to believe they are good enough.  They feel they have to gild the truth about themselves in a world where everything is measured and weighed on the scales of success.

Current Productions

Festen / The Celebration
(2002)
A re-working of Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukow’s award-winning film from 1997 about a family with a dark secret, which the eldest son has decided to reveal to everyone on his father’s 60th birthday.
Translations: Danish, English, German, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Italian, French and Slovenian.
Selected international performances: Dortmunder Schauspielhaus, Germany, 2000. Dramaten, Stockholm, 2002. Danish Royal Theatre, Copenhagen 2002. Nationaltheatret, Oslo, 2003. Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury/London, 2004. Almeida Theatre, Broadway/USA, 2006.

Midt i en myldretid / In the Middle of Rush Hour
(1999)
A couple on their honeymoon is suddenly visited by a friend, the female half of a couple, the husband of which has disappeared on their honeymoon. 

Johns åbenbaring / The Revelation of John
(1997)
A young man invites his family to his home for a reconciliation before Judgment Day, which he has received a revelation is imminent. But his grandmother is constantly smoking hash, she will have nothing to do with her son, John’s father. And John’s father can only talk about himself and his writings, while John’s sister refuses to reconcile with them. The world comes to an end before their eyes and, at John’s initiative, they end up coming together on one thing: being destroyed together.

En verdensomsejling under bordet / A Circumnavigation under the Table
(1996)
A young couple has invited all their friends to celebrate a fantastic New Year’s Eve with them. Only two show up, and one of them is the host’s ex-girlfriend. Over the course of the evening, the facades fall away as more and more liquor is consumed – in order to cover up the fiasco and the broken dreams. 

Review Excerpts

”With classic clarity of composition and powerful dramatic treatment, Festen makes reference to Sophocles’ tragedies as well as Shakespeare, supplemented with more recent icons in the Western canon such as “The Godfather” and Ingmar Bergman. Told with the theatre’s discretion and ability to be several places at the same time, in short dynamic scenes and with razor-sharp characterizations, the film has become great contemporary theatre.”
Dagsavisen (NO), Festen

”Custom cannot stale the emotional impact of Festen. Having now seen the 1998 Dogme film, a Polish stage version and Rufus Norris’s Almeida production for a second time, I find the piece gains from constant reviewing. Last night I came out of the Lyric as drained as I did from Euripides’ Hecuba.”
The Guardian (GB), Festen

“The production achieves a brilliant equilibrium between the poetic effects that intensify your awareness of the long-term psychological damage done, and the grotesque comedy of social insensitivity.”
The Independent (GB), Festen

“… the texture is always complicated. Jovial fellow-feeling twists into the racism of the pack. Convivially freezes into embarrassment as – in minutes infinitely more goose-pimpling on the stage than they could ever be on screen.”
The Observer (GB), Festen

“Festen is the most powerful play I’ve seen on Broadway in years. It packs such an emotional wallop that it was all my companion and I could talk about for hours afterward; it’s still weighing down my heart and my mind a full day later.”
nytheatre.com (US), Festen