Missing the Odin on its 40th birthday

I am homesick for the Odin today. Their 40th birthday party starts next week, with a two-week marathon of conferences & papers on "What Is A Theatre Laboratory," plus guest performances & workshops. They sound exhausted and happy. They have been saving and planning for years to be able to hold this event.

In Bart's rehearsal, we did the funeral today. Wilder gives us Kurasawa gorgeousness. I'm sure those umbrellas are still in my psyche.

My last day at the Odin, Else Marie took photos for me. She is in her 60s, one of the original actors who has now become their digital video guru.


Else Marie and me outside the Odin


Julia, Frans, me, Iben in the bibliotek

As is traditional for the person whose birthday or special occasion it is, I made lunch for the company my last day. Cheeses, Italian salami in white paper, grapes, bread, wine, chocolate. The person of honor sits in Eugenio's place at the head of the table. He was in Paris, we had said goodbye the day before.


Me in Eugenio's place at my going-away lunch


Iben, Sigrid, Kai, and the other end of the table

The young actors, with whom I had been working on Chekhov, made me dinner and a cake that night. They turned off all the lights and entered, the cake suspended on a swaying litter from a pole they bore over their shoulders as in a feudal castle. They were singing an ancient Danish song in 4 voices, in the dark, lit only by two massive candles guarding the cake.


Mia and my cake

There are not many theatres ever, on earth, like the Odin. I hope so very much one day to have one.

There is not one Happy Birthday song in Danish; there are several. The guests sing whichever one they like. And then another, and perhaps one more before the toasts begin.