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OUT & ABOUT IN ENGLISH
ROBIN HOOD VERSUS RONALD RUMP The fifth best selling show in Denmark is performed in English. This year, Robin Hood is the theme of Vivienne McKee’s Crazy Christmas Cabaret.
By Thomas R. Kristensen Photo: Thomas Petri
T
he Crazy Christmas Cabaret is a longstanding tradition in Denmark. The show is performed in English, which obviously makes it perfect for tourists and expats with few or no skills in the Danish language. Nevertheless, most of the audience are Danes. 60,000 tickets are sold every year, which makes the Crazy Christmas Cabaret the fifth best selling show in Denmark.
The woman behind The woman behind the Crazy Christmas Cabaret is Vivienne McKee, an English actress who came to Denmark 36 years ago on a theatre tour and fell in love with a Dane. She started the Crazy Christmas Cabaret in 1982, and since then a new show has been performed every year around Christmas; The last 19 years in Glassalen in Tivoli, and since 2002 also in Aarhus, Denmark’s second biggest city. ”Danes are great ones for tradition. Over the years we created a tradition, and people are saying that it’s not Christmas unless they go to see the Crazy Christmas Cabaret. It has become part of their Christmas traditions,” explains Vivienne McKee.
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foreigners in Denmark. But Vivienne McKee and her team of mainly English actors are able to make the Danes laugh about the Danish language and culture. “Danes are very good at laughing about themselves. Actually, they are marvellous at that. And I think maybe the Danes are curious about how an outsider sees them, although I’ve lived here for 36 years,” says Vivienne McKee. “Although the show is in English, I’ve made it much more applicable to the Danes, with Danes jokes, Danish characters, Danish political figures and Danish royal family members.”
Ronald Rump Actually, the Crazy Christmas Cabaret is not about Christmas at all. Instead, every year it’s about a new theme, a new time in history and a new crazy plot. “Every year I choose a famous character, and this year I thought: I never done the Robin Hood folk hero, who is, after all, probably one of the most famous English heroes ever. Because he helped the poor people, by stealing from the rich people and giving the money to the poor,” says Vivienne McKee. “Robin Hood is up against the sheriff, Ronald Rump, who has a few Eastern European mistresses. He doesn’t like old women, so as soon as they are too old, he kicks them out. And I’m playing the one he most re-
cently kicked out, called Alania,” says Vivienne McKee. By now, most people will be able to see the very unusual mix of Sherwood in old times and the US presidential election, 2016.
Gender confusion Amongst the audience, there are often a lot of gay men. Some of the jokes in the Crazy Christmas Cabaret are having a double meaning, appealing especially to gay men. However, at stage there are also some treats to gay women and other LGBTQ’s. ”In the script of this year’s comedy, Lady Marion is a very strong character. She dresses up as a boy, so she can go hunt in the forest. And Alania starts to fall in love with her, believing her to be a man, but not bothered at all when told that she is in fact a woman,” says Vivienne McKee. Two of the returning characters in the Crazy Christmas Cabaret are Doctor van Helsingør, a male scientist played by Vivienne McKee, and the voluminous woman with the hilarious dresses, played by Andrew Jeffers. According to the tradition, these characters are also written into the plot of this year’s Crazy Christmas Cabaret. “Gender bending and cross-dressing; handsome men and beautiful women; drama and confusion; and a lot of crazy songs. Basically, everything we usually do,” laughs Vivienne McKee. Foto: Andrew Eccles/PR
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