World Wide Writing

”It’s locked, it’s jammed,” exclaims a woman in Dalager’s monologue Jeg tæller timerne [I Count the Hours] from 1993.  The line has been repeated in German, Icelandic, Yiddish, Italian, English, and many other languages.  The play has been performed in twelve countries all over the world.

The woman behind the locked door is in Sarajevo, and the line is to be taken literally: The war shuts her in – either with locks or by total collapse.  But it could apply to many of Dalager’s characters – in his plays and in his novels: They cannot escape their solitude or find community. 

Conflicts are dissected into criminological plots in which ignorance is the pivotal point.  Theatres outside Denmark and international publishers have shown increasing interest in Dalager’s plays.

Dalager’s 17th play, The Dream, investigates the tension between existential psychology and contemporary history.  An issue that captivates audiences from Moscow to New York.  In Moscow, Russians nod in recognition to the central place of women in the family – with men as free-floating satellites around them.  In New York, it is the psychology of the family’s inner life, which mirrors external society, that has resonance.

Dalager grabs hold exactly where others let go: after the revelation of one’s innermost demonic core and on to transformation.  There, where people may do some good in spite of the circumstances society offers us.

This synthesis of the political and the existential has opened doors for Dalager on many continents. 
 
Current Productions

Family Night
(2006)
At an annual family dinner, the head of a publishing clan, the father, is pressured by his two grown sons.  They ask intimate questions about their brain-damaged mother.  A play that dismantles guilt and shame.
Premiered at a staged reading at The Players Club, NY, in the fall of 2006.  Primary roles: Derek Jacobi and Harvey Keitel.

American Electra
(2006)
Sophocles’ tragedy interpreted in the light of American war traumas. Premiered in Beijing 06/07 in Chan Guantiang’s staging.

Ansigter / Faces
(2005)
A double monologue with two women, one Israeli, the other a Palestinian Christian. Each has lost a son to war.
Performed in 2005 at The Theatre Studio, Inc, New York City, with Malin Tybahl in the principal role. Directed and translated by Robert Greer.

Drømmen / The Dream
(2003/01)
Three generations of women gather at a house in Provence. The oldest, a retired psychiatrist, tells her daughter, a teacher, and her grandchild, a journalist, that she is marrying a “friend of the family,” now that her husband is dead.  But did she kill him herself?
The Dream is in its sixth year of production at the Prokovka Theatre, Moscow, in Sergei Artsibaschev’s staging and has been playing at the Jaracza Theatre in Lodz (Poland) since 2003.

Herre og skygge / Lord and Shadow
(1991/2006)
On his death-bed, Hans Christian Andersen conducts a dialogue with his other self, his shadow. The play, which originally premiered in 1991 in Washington, D.C., at The Scena Theater, is scheduled for five new performances:
Münchner Kammerspiele has commissioned a translation.
In New York , theatre agent Archer King is working on a performance on 42nd Street
Plans of a performance in Rio de Janeiro, at the Prokovka Theatre, Moscow. In Beijing by director Chang Guantiang.

Future Publications

Six plays in Danish and English: Jeg tæller timerne [I Count the Hours], Drømmen [The Dream], Family Night, Ansigter [Faces], Herre og skygge [Lord and Shadow], American Electra
In 2006/07 – EC Edition, Århus - www.ec-edition.dk

Review Extracts

“We lucky, sheltered Americans don't really know what war is. (…) No, it isn't possible to fully understand the ravages of war outside our window. But the distinct humanness of the play is universal, and imagining ourselves in the same situation is inevitable.”
Theatre Reviews Limited, I Count the Hours

Cooperation
In Denmark - Forlag Lindhart & Ringhof, www.lrforlag.dk
EC Edition, Århus-DK - www.ec-edition.dk
Worldwide PFD, London, Rosie Cobde (drama agent)/Anna Webber (literary agent) - www.pfd.co.uk
Sweden, Colombine Förlag, agent Berit Gullberg, www.colombine.se