Immigration and emigration are words heard a lot these days. This show from Haderslev in Denmark tells a tale based on a Danish legend written by Nobel prizewinning author Johannes V. Jensen as part of his novel Himmerland Stories written within memory of the 19th century gold rush.
It tells the tale of a man called Laust Eriksen who lives in a Danish community that’s both small in size and outlook. He hears the call of another life in faraway America where he might make his fortune. Sadly this means that he leaves his wife and son to gain his dream. Some 29 years later, he returns home as an old man in the hope of a reunion with his abandoned son.
This is told by 4 men dressed in the hill billy look of yee haw braces, a mix of dusty bowler hats and a stovepipe, battered boots and surrounded by some equally battered trunks. They sit before a brick wall that serves as a giant prop throughout and are surrounded by a whole pile of instruments from ukulele, banjo, guitars, saw, clarinet, steel guitar and in the pocket of the main narrator, a moothie (mouth organ). With these they produce some swinging, foot stomping, clap inducing Blue Grass sounds including versions of Old Dan Tucker and Further on Up the Road and including some appropriate native American drum beats all of which do a great job of lifting the sorry saga to the level of rollicking entertainment.
The whole this is performed with the casual air of a group of genial entertaining uncles and this applies particularly to the chief narrator the Klaus Andersen who creates great hilarity by playing a caricatured woman with just a headscarf. He delivers innuendo with twinkling mischief and his portrayal of the taciturn melancholy of a man persistently seeking kindness in his old age is suitably understated.
The group’s versatility comes to the fore with their version unaccompanied church singing in the style of the old Scottish psalms and as heard in the Jutland set film Babette’s Feast ( Babettes Gæstebud)
There may be no redemption in this tale but Teatret MØllen’s interpretation more than makes up for that and their finale of the lovely old 1930s US classic You are my Sunshine about love and loss puts the icing on this Danish treat.
Age recommend 10+
Friday 15 – Saturday 16 May