Rufus Norris's stage production — and David Eldridge's adaptation — of the Danish 1998 film received rave reviews when it premiered at the Almeida last March. The recast production will open at London's Lyric Theatre on Sept. 23 following a week of previews. The setting is a Danish country house in which wealthy friends and relations gather to celebrate a patriarch's 60th birthday. Michael (Kinnear) and Christian (Malby) are the sons of the bullying father Helge, head of the most dysfunctional family currently portrayed on the London stage.
Stephen Moore will take on the part of Helge, played by Robert Pugh in the original production. The rest of the cast is unchanged form the original production, with Jane Asher playing the role of Else, Helge's wife.
Thomas Vinterberg's "Festen," or "Celebration," is the modern movie classic that put the film movement Dogme 95 on the cultural map.
