New Danish Drama by Jakob Weis & Ana Bro

Title: New Danish Drama

Edited by Paul Russell Garrett

New collection

Pages: 300

World English rights available.

Helmer Hardcore by Jakob Weis    

This modern reimagining of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, taking place 100 years after the death of Ibsen, is set entirely in a contemporary wellness bathroom. When Nora leaves him, Helmer is left struggling to look after their children and unable to cope with modern life. He even finds it impossible to leave the confines of his one sanctuary: the bathroom. This play was staged by [Foreign Affairs] in 2015.

B-C-N-U by Anna Bro

A modern fairy tale for young adults by one of Denmark’s brightest young writers, this tells the story of a teenage girl who leaves home and is forced into some compromising situations by the people she encounters on her journey. A rehearsed reading was performed at the Danish Embassy in London as part of the Theatre Café programme.

The Warmhouse by Anna Bro

Simultaneously heartwarming and melancholic, the entire play takes place in a local establishment that is part pub, part café. The fishing industry may have disappeared decades earlier, but the group of people who were dependent on it continues to come every day, recalling tales of the good old times, and harking back to a simpler age. In 2014, Anna Bro was awarded Denmark’s top prize for this play, the Reumert, the Danish equivalent to the Oliviers.

Death in Venice/Boy in Venice by Jakob Weis

In a take on Thomas Mann’s classic tale, Weis turns the tables on the relationship between the old man and the young boy, giving the boy a voice he did not have in the original. A double monologue performed by a single actor, Weis’s play first appeared in Danish theatres in 2015, with Nicolas Bro, one of Denmark’s top actors, starring.

Edited by the Starling Bureau's own Paul Russell Garrett, this collection of newer Danish drama features translations of two plays by Jakob Weis and two by Anna Bro, both prolific, award-winning dramatists in their native Denmark. Some of the plays have already been featured in London, with reviews indicating that Danish drama has a relevant and important role in world theatre. With Jakob Weis’s recurring theme of masculinity’s place in a modern world, the collection is balanced with Anna Bro’s strong, female characters.