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Yahya Hassan family story to reach the stage
🇩🇰 Denmark /Culture & Society

Yahya Hassan family story to reach the stage

From DR Nyheder · () Danish

Translated from Danish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Press release Official statement New plan
  • The play “The Hassan Family” draws on the poet Yahya Hassan’s life and the account his mother and four siblings gave writer Steffen Stubager.
  • Yahya Hassan’s 2013 autobiographical poetry collection became Denmark’s best-selling debut poetry book, with more than 120,000 copies sold.
  • The stage production addresses refugee trauma, family violence, social neglect and parallel societies through the family’s upbringing in Aarhus’s Trillegården neighborhood.

Yahya Hassan’s family story is heading to the stage, with “The Hassan Family” scheduled for its world premiere at the Royal Playhouse in Copenhagen on Sept. 18.

Hassan became a national figure in Denmark with his self-titled, autobiographical poetry collection, published in 2013. The book sold more than 120,000 copies, making it the best-selling debut poetry collection in Danish history.

Hassan died in April 2020 at the age of 24. Four years later, his mother and four siblings told their story to writer Steffen Stubager. The book that followed draws on Hassan’s childhood in the Trillegården housing neighborhood in Aarhus and examines refugee trauma, violence within the family, social failures and parallel societies.

Director Sargun Oshana described the production as “a family album, not only for the Hassan family, but for the Danish family.” Oshana said the public had watched an icon fall, while a family remained after losing a son and brother.

A family album, not only for the Hassan family, but for the Danish family. We all watched the icon fall, but a family also remained that had lost a son and a brother.

— Sargun OshanaThe director described the play’s focus on the family behind Yahya Hassan’s public image.
About this summary

Originally published by DR Nyheder in Danish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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