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Festen
(Almeida)
The
1998 Danish arthouse film Festen was a rollercoaster of painful
emotions and searing revelations about family life.
| "This
is an evening of gathering and eventually gut-wrenching tension,
which is ratcheted up with a forensic intensity..." |
But
the close-up intensity of this new stage version at the Almeida
has turned it into one of the most powerful, poignant and overwhelming
evenings I've ever spent in the theatre.
The subject is long-term child abuse within a family: at the 60th
birthday party of the father, his now adult son – who was one
of his victims – confronts him with a legacy that saw his twin
sister commit suicide as a result.
As these long suppressed family secrets come tumbling out, the party
– seated at a long table in Rufus Norris's extraordinarily
vivid production like a recreation of the Last Supper – faces
a shattering, irrevocable reckoning.
This
is an evening of gathering and eventually gut-wrenching tension
that Norris ratchets up with a forensic intensity.
unbearable
rage
As
we bear witness to a very private and naked kind of pain and grief,
the simple act of watching it feels intrusive.
 |
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All
in the family: Jonny Lee Miller and Claire Rushbrook
|
But
that's the incredible power of David Eldridge's coolly measured
adaptation of the original film script - in which the characters
speak in eloquent silences as well as unbearable rage - and of a
quite astonishing ensemble cast who animate it with raw feeling
and overpowering emotion.
As the three surviving siblings, Jonny Lee Miller, Tom Hardy and
Claire Rushbrook capture perfectly the familiarity, hostility and
rivalry that binds them.
As
their parents, Robert Pugh and Jane Asher offer frighteningly plausible
studies in denial of what theyÂ’re hearing, but know to be true.
But
then everyone in the company completely inhabits the skin of this
family - and gets right under yours.
Agree
or disagree with our review? Add your comments below...
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