Red and black. Tiny flowers pinned to shirts. Four actors are standing on the improvised stage amid bookshelves at Politikens Boghal while the audience sits on the stairs. It is minimalistic and it is abundant. There is no need to astonish and make the audience's jaw drop with action. The words from the First World War front do it better. It is thrilling, it is frightening and it is sentimental, all at the same time.
Words louder than actions
The audience is taken to the trenches where these emotional and touching letters were born. There are confessions, proposals of marriage and final goodbyes with lines like "this letter will find you when I will find eternal peace".
Four actors – Sue Hansen-Styles, Barry McKenna, Malte-Joe Frid Nielsen and Andrew Jeffers – use letters, poems and songs to create a medley of emotions. As well as the words, there are visuals, from pictures on a screen and a particularly affecting projection of skulls displayed on the black dress of Hansen-Styles. They offer strong support to the lines of anxiety and dismay.
Thought-provoking
As fully focused as I am, I cannot stop thinking about the current conflicts going on in the world. 'Remembrance' raises so many pertinent questions as it takes us from the excitement of defending the motherland through the harsh reality of the battlefield to the sentiments of those left behind.
'Remembrance' is a stark reminder that war is is so much more than the dates, losses and achievements we were taught at school. That it is about human lives being changed and perceptions, aspirations and dreams being altered. And like war, 'Remembrance' is dramatic, tragic and at times so inexplicably humorous it will make you smile in wonder.
Remembrance
Various venues
continues until September 19
whynottheatre.dk
