Kjeld Abell

Who was Kjeld Abell?

Kjeld Abell was a Danish playwright and theatrical designer. Born in Ribe, Denmark, Abell's first designs were seen in ballets directed by George Balanchine at Copenhagen's Royal Danish Theatre and London's Alhambra Theatre.

Roughly the dramatic work of Abell might be divided into three phases: a criticism of middle class conventions, b fighting Nazism and c criticism of post-war pessimism and urge for death. Perhaps he is the first consequent modernist among Danish playwrights with his use of a flash back Chinese box system and a growing use of symbols and parallel actions.

His first play was Melodien, der blev vœk 1935,. The play is an expressionistic piece that utilizes non-verbal and unrealistic elements, undoubtedly inspired by ballet. The first production of this play was in 1935 in Copenhagen followed by a production a year later in London by the Arts Theatre. In this play Abell describes the life of the "white-collar worker" limited by old-fashioned conventions and it is a fantasy about the mental emancipation of “the little man”. A young, disrespectful attitude together with a both lyric and imaginative dialogue has let it remain his most popular work and some of its song lines have become classics.