Festen
Opening Night: March 9, 2006
Closing: May 20, 2006
Theater: Music Box Theatre
A beloved patriarch, surrounded by his wife, his daughter, his two sons, and a host of family and friends, is celebrating his 60th birthday at his country home. This promises to be a very special occasion, but as the evening progresses, the man’s eldest son, Christian, feels compelled to break the silence surrounding a family secret. Standing to propose a toast, he offers his father — much to the delight of the guests — an amusing yet simple choice. And so the games begin. Revelations and accusations tumble across the dinner table, paving the way for a celebration that no one will ever forget.
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April 10, 2006
Home is a black hole in "Festen," the intensely staged, indifferently acted domestic shocker that opened last night at the Music Box Theater. As conceived by the director Rufus Norris and a design team of inspired austerity, David Eldridge’s adaptation of a 1998 Danish film about a family reunion seems to exist entirely on the edge of an unconditional darkness, a magnetic maw just waiting to suck you in. Rendered in a sea of shadow in which light feels wan and provisional, this is home as it appears in the most unforgiving nightmares of adults about their childhoods — a place that saps will, courage and any semblance of an autonomous self.
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