Scan Magazine | Experience of the Month | Denmark
Photo: Anders Hjerming.
Experience of the Month, Denmark
Uniting people through the joy of theatre Led by the dynamic director duo, Brian Kristensen and Kristoffer Møller Hansen, Holbæk Theatre has become a place where anything can happen. This year, productions will include a look at relationships through a mash-up of theatre and stand-up comedy, a theatre documentary about drop-outs, and a Monty Python-ised version of Around the World in 80 Days. By Signe Hansen
Since Kristensen and Hansen took over the management of Holbæk Theatre in 2011, the theatre has more than doubled its visitor numbers, erased its old debt, and added a number of new genres to its programme. But, most importantly, according to the two actors turned theatre directors, the theatre has managed to give its audience a range of spectacular 104 | Issue 97 | February 2017
a way, what we want to do can also be compared to the new Nordic kitchen; we call it new Nordic stage art, and it means taking a known play or genre and presenting it in a new and contemporary way.”
In it together cultural experiences. “Having two actors lead the theatre is a bit like having a chef lead a restaurant – it means the focus is on the food, or in our case on the cultural content and the audience’s experience of it. You can invest thousands on advertising, but if people don’t get a good cultural experience, it’s all lost,” says Kristensen, and Hansen adds: “In
The unusual set-up of having two directors with shared responsibilities was the duo’s own idea. As the position became vacant, the two friends, who had both grown up in the area, looked at each other and realised that if anyone knew what it would take to make a theatre successful in their home region, it would be them, together.