ARENDT, to see in darkness
AUGUST 2023, co-production Odense Teater and Off-off productions
Photos: EmiliaTheresePhotos: EmiliaTherese
Information: (The Information News)
”Rhea Leman’s text is nothing less than outstanding.”
Weekendavisen (Weekend News)
”ARENDT – to see in darkness is a radiant portrait of one of the most essential personalities in the 20th century.” “Effortless and fascinating theatre.”
Politiken****: (Politiken News)
“Imagine people pouring in to see theatre about the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt! Probably a sign of the need to get a helping hand to understand the actual turbulence now where the tectonic plates of history are beginning to rock under us”
Århus Stiftende (Århus News)
“'Arendt' is excellent and thought-provoking theatre”.
"Arendt - to see in the dark" is an extremely contemporary performance that, with humanity and hope in focus, explores how Nazism and other totalitarian dictatorships can arise.
Cph.Culture******(Copenhagen Culture)
“Rhea Leman's latest play ARENDT, not only stands out as her most ambitious, but also as her most enriching.”
Kulturkupeen ****** (The Cultural Coup)
”Based on the female philosopher Hannah Arendt, Rhea Leman has written a play that is to that extent stripped of redundant side actions and yet saturated in the description of a strong woman who had to flee from Nazism in 1933 and subsequently suffer in France when the Germans came, while she, like many other Jewish refugees in the United States, finally found sanctuary.”
”Arendt ought to be seen by as many as possible because when have we last had such a thoughtful theatre experience so very hard to shake?”
Kjerteminde Avis (Kjerteminde News)******
“Rhea Leman's dramatization of Hannah Arendt's life is excellent, … a small stroke of genius"
Sceneblog *****
”Beautifully thought out portrait of the philosopher Hannah Arendt, where Ina-Miriam Rosenbaum, in a gigantic performance, is soaring through time and space in historical fiction by Rhea Leman.”
Ungt teater blod ***** (Young Theater Blood)
”Playwright Rhea Leman not only tells about Hannah Arendt's life but also includes her philosophical work and theories. This results in an exciting and different narrative that is equal parts historical, dramatic, and intellectual. Thus, it is beautifully shown how Arendt's own experiences have created the fertile ground for her theoretical work.”
”ARENDT – to see in darkness is a magnificent and riveting piece of drama, both entertaining and food for thought. It is a performance that wants to grasp a hold of us.”
Scenekanten ***** (The Scene’s Edge)
A wonderfully humanizing portrayal of an esteemed philosophical persona who very few people know as a human being. … An important person and history, not least in times like these.
LØNSTRUP LADIES
VENDSYSSEL TEATER premiere September 2022
Photos: Vendsyssel Theater
NORDJYSKE AVIS
In a link between their life story, dramatic freedom and fiction, this newly written dream play has found its form. Lønstrup forms the framework, and the story is woven together across people, events and generations during the 20th century.
Rhea Leman has written Lønstrup Ladies inspired by two women who lived in a small semi-detached house in Lønstrup and both lived for over 90 years. The two women, Mie Lauritzen and Hanne Berendt, lived in the small semi-detached house in Lønstrup.
INFORMATION NEWS
The stage space ready for adaptation and empathy supports the dramaturgical structure in Leman's text and Rosenbaum's staging, which wisely borrows from the narrative technical fragmentation of the film medium in the narrative structure of the performance, so that 100 years of female destiny narrative never falls on the empathetic barometer - despite the duration of two hours.
KULTURKUPEEN ****
Everyone does well in "Lønstrup Ladies". The text also requires an extra effort to redeem, because playwright Rhea Leman has not only created countless female characters: Grethe, Ruth, Liv, Agnes, Ingeborg and Thyra, who also move around in time and place.
Another interesting and very well played story drawn from local life in Vendsyssel: "Lønstrup Ladies".
SNOW
Bornholms Teater, premier August 2022
(third play in Bornholm’s trilogy history during the past 50 years)
Photo: MartinThaulow
ISCENE ****
… This is how the climate crisis, magic and the general sadness of the couple’s relationship come together in Rhea Leman's somewhat mainstream but replicable script, which she herself has staged with a good sense of a dynamic that ranges from slapstick to spooky weirdness.Despite its very concrete starting point in 2010, Sne tackles a more general agenda than the previous parts of the chronicle, but manages to bring past and present together through the intervention of the underground in man's dealings with nature.
BORNHOLMS NEWS
Everyone who loves theater should treat themselves to experience SNOW at Rønne Theater. The performance is a really good experience that lifts and strengthens our Bornholm culture. The premiere proceeded with a full four rounds of applause and standing ovation, so there is something to look forward to."
COPENHAGEN CULTURE ****
... a bold attempt to break with the realism that is all too often allowed to dominate in new Danish drama.
VIGGO MORTENSEN DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
written by Rhea Leman, directed by Sargun Oswan
* * * * Jyllands Posten
… the performance is comical because playwright Rhea Leman has written a funny, but well-functioning mixture of farce and everyday realism and because the newly trained director, Sargun Oshana magnifies the emotions, so they end up as animal sounds … but soon dampens down to credible and intimate dialogue.
Henrik Lyding, Jyllands-Posten
* * * * Herning Folkeblad
… is grotesque, freaky and cartoon-like, highlighted by pastel-colored costumes, detailed props, color scheme in pink, purple, turquoise, tight set design and a nutty instruction. The text is free-flowing, with a lot of catchy lines.
Ann Helen Hvelplund, Herning Folkeblad
* * * * Kulturtid
The three actors, Hans Henrik Clemensen, Signe Barfoed and Nanna Buhl Andresen are entertaining, amusing making this an easy drama that despite the seriousness, makes you go from the theater with a smile and a few catchy evergreens on your lips – “I feel nice, like sugar and spice!”
Carsten Gjerløv, Kulturtid
THE ROSENBERGS
With the mushroom cloud as the Cold War terror emblem in the background, Ethel and Julius sing their story, so the warning signs and the thoughts about their tragic end, weaves together in a narrative marked by sweetness, vulnerability and tremendous willpower.”
Politiken, Thomas Michaelsen
“The composer Joachim Holbek has created a lymph-like flow of empathetic chamber music, and the playwright and choreographer Rhea Leman has given the two singers in The Rosenbergs a moving, almost intravenous text and movement patterns which encompasses all shades of being lost, now that death has happened and every attempt to look back reveals unbearable abysses.”
WeekendAvisen, Peter Johannes Erichsen
“The singers give a very impressive presentation in the beautifully directed musical drama where the singing is excellent.
Frederiksborg Amtsavis, Mikael Krakrup
GORILLA
“ … one of the most welcomed and moving performances of this season.”
“The inner gorilla comes to life faster than you can imagine in Rhea Leman’s excellent play about the financial crisis and five men’s fear of getting fired.”
Anne Middelboe Christensen, Information October 2012
“Rhea Leman has written a beautiful text. It waves a flag of parody, fiercely ridiculing our private emotions that are generated under the falsity of corporate empathy.”
***** Kirsten Dahl, Århus Times, Januar 2015
“Successful Danish office comedy about the jungle in a large, engineering company that’s threatened financially. A witty and realistic comedy " .
Henrik Lyding, Jyllands Posten
“… good theater that’s performed so well that it gives you both something to laugh at and something to think about - maybe while you’re looking in the mirror.”
Vagn Buch, Herning Times, October 2012
“Even though the performance never resorts to the feel-good-trap, it’s very entertaining. So go and see it before your HR boss does.”
Dorthe Kolding, Herning Weekly October 2012
“Gorilla held my interest from start to finish in it’s exploration of the inherent conflicts when vulnerable humans attempt to be inhuman corporate drones.”
Adrienne Urbanski, Theater is Easy, May 2013
“This is a satisfying piece of theater, with a story that gets you somewhere – even if, as the lights fade to black, you’re not exactly sure where you’ve ended up.”
R.L. Brody NYC Theater Review, May 2013
HITLER ON THE ROOF
“Hitler’s right-hand man, Joseph Goebbels reappears in Rhea Leman’s fantastic play, that brings the audience physically close to the truth of The Third Reich. Hitler On the Roof is maybe the theater season’s most kinky title but Rhea Leman’s play also proves to be one of the season’s most interesting.”
Anne-Middelboe Christensen, Information, May 2011
“What if Joseph Goebbels hadn’t died at the end of W.W.2? What if he was still alive, living in Hitler’s Führerbunker , sending nazi propanganda through his radio program: Radio Free Goebbels! That’s the imaginative premise for Rhea Leman’s political satire with the sassy title “HITLER ON THE ROOF.”
Jakob Steen Olsen, Berlingske Tidende
“Brutally provoking.”
Gregers Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Gregers.dk
“Intense, moving and comical … original and fierce entertainment… a combination of tragedy, comedy and honesty.”
***** Julie Callesen, www.kultunaut.dk
GOEBBEL’S LECTURE
The tragic comedy is based on how the youth was used in the Hitler’s Germany when they were working to convert the German people into Nazis through the culture and value’s propaganda. Here, Goebbels gives today's young audience an introduction to, "The talent of Dr. Goebbels'”, hoping to repeat the success from his golden days.
Goebbels ' Time is, thanks to a magnetizing and dazzlingly beautiful spectacle achievement and an excellent text, has become a terrifying and important performance.
Goebbels ' Time is both breathtaking and disturbing.
****** Kirsten Dahl, The children’s theater magazine (teateravisen.dk)
