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Astrid Saalbach

ASTRID SAALBACH

  
Nationality:    Danish
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Colombine Theatre Agency  

Astrid Saalbach grew up in Elsinore, Denmark, and graduated from Senior School in 1975. On leaving Senior School, she went straight to The Danish National School of Theatre from which she graduated in 1978. She worked as an actor until 1985. Debuted as a playwright with the radio play Traces in the Sand (Spor i sandet), 1981. All plays have been produced in Denmark and produced or published in one or more of the following countries: Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the Faeroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Island, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithaunia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States.

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below is a list of Astrid Saalbach's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust         Bad Girls: The Stylists         Blessed Child, The         Cold Call         End of the World         Footmarks in the Sand         Hidden City, The         Morning and Evening         Pieta         Red and Green

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Synopsis:
A man and a woman - mature, well-educated, with promising careers ahead of them - begin a love affair. Everything looks bright. But considerations for his children from a previous marriage makes the man leave the woman he loves. Love turns to hate. Aplay about guilt and obsession, and the mysterious forces that govern us and can drive us to terrible and inconceivable actions. (Staged in Denmark and Norway. Published in book form in Danish.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     1998

Organisations:
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1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bad Girls: The Stylists

Synopsis:
F, a middle aged woman in a crisis, spies on four young women in a small hair salon, the center of femininity. Using all means at her disposal, F attempts to get close to them: Mette, Jorun, Trine, and the recently arrived Boogie, a stranger with a shadowy past and a remarkable talent for accounting. Who are these women? Who are their many customers? Who is F, herself? What is it that clouds her conscience? When Boogie disappears, F's dubious enterprise is brutally revealed. A tragicomic play about being a woman and having difficulties with other women. About gender as construction, biology, or a curse. About fiction and reality, and losing one's way between the two.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     2014

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blessed Child, The

Synopsis:
Part One takes place in the present, where Malte and Victor have just started school, and their parents are far too preoccupied by what the children must learn. Part Two takes place approximately thirty years in the future, where women have a monopoly on power, but nothing to use it for, and men are reduced to slaves or prostitutes. No children born survive. But then Victor, who has become Victoria, gives birth to an especially resilient kid - the first of the new species, which Malte predicted will take over Earth, and those who tell the story & A comedy about the end of the family, fear for the future, and the monsters generated by this fear. (Staged in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, USA. Published in book form in Danish.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     1996

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cold Call

Synopsis:
About being blind, literally and metaphorically. About not seeing the danger until it's too late. About feeling isolated, as does Rune, a young man working as a systems administrator at a telemarketing company, a place where all other employees are blind or severely visually impaired. Rune is lonely and trusts no one, not even Tilde, a colleague with whom he falls in love. Though she and everybody else around him are blind, he feels watched and persecuted. Paranoia blooms, and he is finally compelled to act. (Staged in Denmark. Translated into Swedish and Enlish)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     2016

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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End of the World

Synopsis:
Xenia, a younger air hostess, has just landed after an exhausting long-haul flight. During the last part of her return home, she gets lost. She meets a strange young girl, who would rather have been a horse. The young girl leads her into a world beyond our time zones, a world where airplanes of a distant past fell from the sky without reason, and where children are exchanged for roller suitcases. In this world, all of Xenia's dreams come true, dreams she neglected in her earlier life. A play about transformation, passion, and loss that may be the beginning of something new. (Staged in Denmark, Czech Republic, Canada and Norway. Reading at Comedie Francaise, Paris, and Alexandrinsky New Stage, Sankt Petersburg. Published in book form in Danish, French, Romanian, and Chinese.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     2003

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Footmarks in the Sand

Synopsis:
A young unemployed couple, living in a future totalitarian society, go on an outing to a beach where nothing is as it usually is. A play about surveillance, dream, and reality. (Broadcast in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Sweden, and Switzerland.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     1981

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Forlaget Drama   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Radio play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hidden City, The

Synopsis:
A young woman is employed on trial at a nursing home, which turns out to be more than crowded. Being eager to make herself useful, she quickly adapts to the unusual working conditions. As time passes, the world outside disappears, and she gets drawn into a game between the employees and the elderly residents. A play about oblivion, death, and the willingness of women to sacrifice themselves. (Staged in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Italy. Published in book form in Danish.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     1986

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Forlaget Drama   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Morning and Evening

Synopsis:
A haunting, puzzling and quizzical play. At first, it seems hopelessly fragmented. Is this scene an echo of another scene? A variation on it? Or a continuation? Regardless, the short scenes hold and tease the audience's imagination. The seven actors each play multiple roles. Each character appears in a brilliantly observed and imagined vignette, in which trivial incidents and remarks echo things which happened to the same actor when he/she played another character. There are three "morning scenes" that are about beginnings and the endings lurking within. Then there are three "evening scenes", in which a sense of ending is underscored by a perception of beginnings. In between there are four intermezzos, which are even shorter and suggest transition, repetition, and uncertainty. Each story has a sense of completion, yet there is the suggestion of endlessness. The effect is kaleidoscopic, impromptu, yet carefully planned

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Contained in: "Modern Women Playwrights of Europe" published by Oxford University Press, 2000   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pieta

Synopsis:
Rie, a middle-aged woman with a little too much going on in her life and career, wakes up with a dreadful hangover. She finds herself in a hotel room. Next to her lies a young man she does not know. He lies somewhat too quietly. (Staged in Sweden, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Faroe Islands, Italy, Norway, and Sweden. Published in book form in Danish and in Estonian.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-     2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Red and Green

Synopsis:
A group of European aid workers in a third-world country torn by civil war, somewhat like Nepal. One person is homesick, another disconnected herself long ago, yet others are drifting, having lost their sense of place. Promiscuity is rampant, and while testing private and professional limits, all try in different ways to repress the fact their work may do more harm than good. A kaleidoscopic tale of power and impotence. (Staged in Sweden, Denmark, Poland, United States.)

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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