Writers: Thomas Vinterberg, Mogens Rukov and Bo Hr. Hansen adapted for the English stage by David Eldridge
Director: Allan Stronach
Festen, ironically subtitled and translated “the celebration”, depicts a wealthy Danish family gathering for the 60th birthday of its head, Helge. Nothing is as it seems, and there’s certainly no reason to celebrate anything. We’re in the world of Strindberg, Ibsen and Chekhov with group dynamics, subtext and tensions bubbling. It feels like a play from a very different era, although, surprisingly, the film which David Eldridge has adapted dates from 1998.
Joshua Picton is outstanding as Christian, the eldest of Helge’s four children. Initially urbane – although at first there’s fierce tension with his irascible younger brother Michael (Alexander Dalton) – he drops a revelatory bombshell in his birthday dinner speech, and the effect is devastating. His twin sister, Linda, has died by suicide for reasons which now become apparent.
And the later crazed, half-drunk scenes in which Picton’s character mistakes his young niece (Eloise McCreedy, who alternates with Millie Howard at other performances) for his much missed sister are as moving as they are disturbing. Meanwhile, he’s been having sex with Pia (Medea Manaz), one of his father’s staff, for some time, although she’s keener than he is. Those scenes are subtly strong, too.
Martin Shaw is pleasing as Helge as much as we come to loathe him, and there’s an enjoyable performance from David Lindley-Pilley, the deliciously camp servant who does his job efficiently while missing nothing and refusing to be put upon. And, as at every family gathering, there are the eccentric outliers: the dim, drunken uncle (Daniel Watson – nicely observed) and the grandfather with dementia (Andrew Robinson – perfect).
As always, though, the show rests on the skill of the director, and Allan Stonach is very good at deafening silence when every character is so astonished, overwhelmed or distressed that no one knows what to say – so they don’t. During, for example, the main course at dinner, nobody speaks for a while, and all you can hear is cutlery scraping on plates as the tension builds. The scenes in which the well-oiled dinner guests sing and cavort across the set in a sort of manic conga-style dance, pretending nothing is wrong, are effective too.
Angelika Michitsch’s triangular set supports the action neatly. She has a long screen (the dining room wall) across the right angle of Tower’s triangular playing space so that characters can emerge from either side or make a circuit as you might in a large country house through several rooms. Two wall cupboards are flipped over to become beds, and there’s an ingenious scene in which three couples are paralleled in three different bedrooms while all are in the same physical space.
Festen is a brave choice for a community theatre, but, as it almost always does, Tower Theatre has risen ably to the challenge
Runs until 29 November 2025
