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May 5, 2013

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Kierkegaard's musings made suitable for children

DANISH philosopher Soeren Kierkegaard's work is so dense that he himself lamented: "People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood." So it's something of a surprise that a Danish director has turned his most famous book into a musical for schoolchildren.

As Denmark celebrates the philosopher's 200th birthday today, Marie Moeller has found her version of "Either/Or" - featuring strobe lights, rave music and child-size puppets - being performed in schools across the country.

Kierkegaard's esoteric musings, considered the forerunner to existentialism, deeply influenced French thinker Jean-Paul Sartre. But while most Danes have heard of Kierkegaard, and are proud of his influence on Western thought, few ever bother to read him.

His 1843 work "Either/Or" - which muses on existence and aesthetic and ethical questions about love - runs into hundreds of pages and is considered even by many academics to be convoluted. Moeller, a 28-year-old stage director, cut through the arcane thicket of thought by focusing on a meeting between Kierkegaard and his lover.

In a separate performance titled the "Kierkegaard Comedy Show," 46-year-old actor Claus Damgaard uses the philosopher's thoughts to discuss sex and modern romantic relationships with a mix of humor and lecturing. The show has toured Denmark and has been staged at a former chapel next to the cemetery where Kierkegaard and his contemporary, fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen, are buried. "I remember that when I started reading Kierkegaard, it was hell," Damgaard said.

The bicentennial events begin today with Denmark's Queen Margrethe expected to attend a church service at Copenhagen's Lutheran Cathedral, where Kierkegaard's funeral was held in 1855. Festivities in Denmark run through November 11, the day he died at age 42.




 

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