PINK PAVILION

PINK PAVILION is BLAAGAARD TEATER’s recurring reading festival for Danish and international playwriting. The festival presents newly written drama directed and performed by emerging and established artists from the Danish and international performing arts scene. PINK PAVILION 2026 will present plays exploring the theme: “FREEDOM OF…”

The participating international playwrights were selected from more than 70 applicants through an open call issued by BLAAGAARD TEATER in collaboration with cultural institutes from Catalonia, France, and Germany. At this year’s festival the readings will be presented in English in order to include our international partners while also opening up the plays to Copenhagen-based non-Danish-speaking guests.

The selected playwrights will have 30-minute excerpts of their works presented as staged readings. All three selected texts will be presented each night. 

WHAT IS A READING?
“A reading is a performance of scenes or the full text of a play, where the actors hold the script in their hands and read from it while the audience watches. It is often very raw, honest, and at times moving, because the artistic team has not polished anything whatsoever.”
— JEPPE PACHAÏ

SELECTED PLAYS

TATREEZ
On stage, a writer is composing the play the audience is about to see. The writer’s reality and the fiction she is creating intertwine, moving between written and spoken words, dialogues, monologues, video calls, and poetry in an attempt to tell a story about war, displacement, joy, and hope.
PLAYWRIGHT: Valentine Sergo* (FR/SWISS)
DIRECTOR: Julia Wissert (DE)
CAST: Alberte Alexis Ibsen, Amira Jasmina Jensen, Kasper Krassimir

EXTRA ZERO
Everyday life in a clinic for eating disorders follows a strict routine until the patients’ weight aligns with the institution’s rigid requirements and life “in freedom” once again becomes possible. A radical chorus of eating-disordered voices confronts the institution, asking how to break out of this vicious cycle.
PLAYWRIGHT: Elisabeth Pape (DE)
DIRECTOR: Sullivan Lloyd Nordrum (NO)
CAST: Alberte Alexis Ibsen, Jeppe Pachaï, Kasper Krassimir

SHORT INTERVIEWS WITH EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN
A model transformed into a living Barbie doll; a female scientist dreaming of immortality; and a six-year-old girl who loves waking up every day to this wonderful world. Who can question the freedom to be who you are?
PLAYWRIGHT: Joan Yago (CAT)
DIRECTOR: Bahar Pars (SE/IR)
CAST: Alberte Alexis Ibsen, Amira Jasmina Jensen, Kasper Krassimir

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JOIN US ON THE LAST DAY OF THE FESTIVAL
This year, we are hosting a special and very exciting day on June 12th, and everyone is welcome! The programme includes graduation readings from the Playwriting Programme at DDSKS Aarhus, talks and discussions presented in collaboration with DRAMATIKKENS HUS, international playwrights, and a summer party at BLAAGAARD THEATRE.

PROGRAM
12.00 – 13.00: The theatre opens! Join us for drinks and a relaxed gathering in the courtyard.
13.00 – 14.30: Excerpts from graduation readings by students from the Playwriting Programme at DDSKS Aarhus
15.00 – 16.30: Talk and discussion with Athena Farrokhzad and Anja Hilling, presented in collaboration with DRAMATIKKENS HUS.
16.30 – 18.00: DJ and drinks in the courtyard.
18.00 – 21.00: Readings of EXTRA ZERO, TATREEZ and SHORT INTERVIEWS WITH EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN.
21.00 – 02.00: Summer party with DJs!

Selected graduation readings from the Playwriting Programme at DDSKS Aarhus. 

LINDRENDE SOMMER
When the young poet Alain travels to the city in the hope of getting his manuscript accepted, he encounters an old friend, a gallery owner and an editor. But what motives lie beneath the surface? Will Alain lose himself in the demands of the art world? And what role do the angels of writing play in it all?
PLAYWRIGHT: Sylvester Blondin
DIRECTOR: Johan Sarauw
CAST: Ann Celina Fønsskov, Hampus Egelund Ahlberg, Asta Brüel Kainz, Mikkel Stubbe Teglbjærg

ORDINARY PEOPLE
Karsten and Clara are sitting on the deck of a ferry, enjoying the spring sunshine and dreaming about what the future might hold now that Karsten has finally finished his first novel. But it doesn’t take long before doubt begins to creep in.
PLAYWRIGHT: Johannes Wiggen K.
DIRECTOR: Anna Schulin-Zeuthen
CAST: Sebastian Munck Rasmussen, Mads-Lucas Aagaard, Mette Klakstein, Clara Sophia Phillipson

Time: 13.00–14.30
Language: Danish

Talk and discussion with Athena Farrokhzad and Anja Hilling
Swedish-Iranian playwright Athena Farrokhzad and German playwright Anja Hilling will each present perspectives on this year's festival theme, “Freedom of…”. Drawing on her latest publication, The Tragedies, Athena Farrokhzad will discuss feminist and postcolonial rewritings of the literary canon. Anja Hilling will explore the theatrical space and how its very constraints can become a source of freedom. The presentations will be followed by a conversation between the two playwrights and the audience, moderated by Abelone Koppel and Johanne Petrine Reynberg.

Time: 15.00–16.30
Language: English

*Text written with the support of the Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, International Center for theater writing and as part of a residency at Maisons Mainou (Vandoeuvres, Canton of Geneva). 
Dramaturgical support: Wissam Arbache
SACD 2024 Prize for Francophone Dramaturgies. 
Winner of the aide à la creation ARTCENA, November 2024