Kjeld Abell (25 August 1901 – 5 March 1961)
[ was a Danish playwright, screenwriter, and theatrical designer. Born in ]Ribe
Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,257 (2022). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe covering southwestern Jutland. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It ...
, Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
, Abell's first designs were seen in ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
s directed by George Balanchine at Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
's Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first s ...
and London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
's Alhambra Theatre.
Roughly the dramatic work of Abell might be divided into three phases: a) criticism of middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
conventions, b) fighting Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
and c) criticism of post-war pessimism
Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is " Is the glass half emp ...
and urge for death. Perhaps he is the first consequent modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
among Danish playwrights with his use of a flash back Chinese box system and a growing use of symbols and parallel actions.
Biography
Abell worked as a stagehand and a costume designer in Paris before he got his big break as a playwright in 1935 with ''Melodien, der blev vœk'' 1935, (English translation ''The Melody That Got Lost'', 1939),[ which is a playful comedy about spiritual disorientation in a technological society; it is also ]expressionistic
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
in that it utilizes non-verbal and unrealistic elements, undoubtedly inspired by ballet. The first production of this play was in 1935 in Copenhagen followed by a production a year later in London by the Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London.
History
It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...
. In this play Abell describes the life of the "white-collar worker
A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or other administrative setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, ...
" limited by old-fashioned conventions, and it is a fantasy about the mental emancipation of "the little man". A young, disrespectful attitude together with both lyric and imaginative dialogue has let it remain his most popular work. Some of its song lines have become classics.
Both before and during the Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
occupation of Denmark, Abell used his plays to protest the loss of freedom. Themes in these plays explore freedom and escapism as self-annihilation. These works include ''Anna Sophie Hedvig'' (1939, English translation 1944),[ a defence of ]violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...
as a necessary means against tyranny and a criticism of passive humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
, beyond any doubt inspired by the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
, and ''Dronning gaar igen'' (''The Queen on Tour'', 1943). Abell spent much of his time during the occupation in hiding due to his anti-Nazi activism. ''Silkeborg'' (1946) expresses criticism of both Danish passivity and acceptance of the German occupation.
Following the war many of his plays took on complex mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
elements. These plays include ''Dage paa en sky'' (''Days on a Cloud'', 1947),[Sprinchorn, Evert, editor. ''The Genius of the Scandinavian Theater''. New American Library. 1964] ''Den blå pekingeser'' (''The Blue Pekingese'', 1954), ''Kameliadamen'' (''The Lady of the Camellias'', 1954 - a personal version of the drama by Dumas) and ''Skriget'' (''The Scream'', English translation 1961). The much debated ''Dage paa en Sky'' both takes place among the Olympic mythological goddesses and in the brain of a suicidal scientist, it warns against the atomic war
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...
, and accuses scientists of prostituting themselves to the rulers. The even more complex ''Den blå pekingeser'' also takes place in the head of a man, while his former love is threatened by death. Again the message is to break one's isolation and to accept life. Abell died in Copenhagen.
Hailed in his prime as a fresh and humorous reformer, critic and teaser of Danish theatre and later respected for his anti-fascist attitudes. After the war Abell was accused of being a fellow traveller
The term ''fellow traveller'' (also ''fellow traveler'') identifies a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member of that o ...
and also criticised for being too complicated and strained. This together with his growing disappointments with the left wing partly led to isolation. However he is probably still regarded as the most important new-thinker of Danish drama of the inter-war period. In European dramatic literature he has been compared to French authors such as Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II.
His wo ...
and Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ''Antigone'', an ad ...
. He also was a song writer of revues, and he wrote film scripts.
He became a member of the Danish Academy
Danish Academy is an independent organisation founded in 1960 by a circle of Danish intellectuals "to promote Danish esprit and language, especially within the field of literature". It has up to 20 members, currently 18, and is based at Rungstedl ...
in 1960.
Works
Sources
* Banham, Martin, ed. ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre''. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
* Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. ''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre''. Oxford University Press, 1983.
* Frederick J. Marker: ''Kjeld Abell''. Gloucester, Mass. 1976.
* Sven Møller Kristensen: ''Dansk litteratur 1918-1952''. 2. ed. Copenhagen, 1965 (entirely in Danish)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abell, Kjeld
1901 births
1961 deaths
20th-century Danish dramatists and playwrights
Danish male dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Danish male writers
People from Ribe