‘I sense bad vibes,” someone says early on in “Festen (The Celebration),” and, boy, is she on target, as a 60th-birthday party turns into a maelstrom of horrific accusations and literally buried family secrets.
Sound familiar? Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov’s drama was adapted from their acclaimed 1998 Danish film. A 2006 production starring Ali MacGraw and Julianna Margulies flopped on Broadway, but this adaption — from Poland’s TR Warszawa company, performed in Polish, with English subtitles — is stunnning.
Among the guests at the fancy dinner party for Helge are his three grown children, including his clearly troubled son, Christian. Assigned to give a toast, Christian delivers a “household confession” accusing his father of raping him and his sister when they were children, and for indirectly causing the suicide of another sibling.
The ensuing emotional chaos embroils multiple generations of the family and their guests, including a relative with the unenviable task of officiating over the proceedings. “Being master of ceremonies on a night like this is quite challenging,” he deadpans.
Brilliantly staged by Grzegorz Jarzyna and superbly acted, “Festen” unfurls in alternately realistic and stylized fashion, with the ghost of the dead sister hovering over the proceedings. You won’t soon forget Jan Peszek’s Helge, whose response to the horrible accusation is all the more chilling for its impassivity.