ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

House upon House is a poetic blend of object theatre, physical performance, music, and visual storytelling.

Seven generations of pianists marry into seven different houses. Their stories unfold across nearly two centuries—from the Danish Golden Age through Romanticism, the Second World War, and into the present day. Personal destinies intertwine across generations as memories, dreams, and fractures in time begin to merge.

The miniature rooms of the dollhouses gradually transform into life-sized spaces that fill the stage. Different eras. Different realities. History and storytelling. Harmony and dissonance. Magical realism and utopia come together in a deeply poetic theatrical universe.

House upon House premiered in March 2023 at Teater Møn – Sukkerfabrikken in Stege, Denmark, followed by its Copenhagen premiere at Teaterøen.

Recommended age: 10+

Created by

Tilde Knudsen

Peter Kirk

Klaus Risager

Performed by

Peter Kirk

Tilde Knudsen

Composer & Sound Design

Klaus Risager

REVIEWS

★★★★★

“House upon House is an enchanting, deeply moving and poetic performance about memory, trauma and love across generations. It tells the story of a family narrative that has slipped away from a traumatised mind, only to return through chess pieces, dollhouses, flashlights in the darkness and an extraordinary soundscape. Once again, Asterions Hus—Tilde Knudsen, Peter Kirk and composer Klaus Risager—have surpassed themselves, creating a truly remarkable poetic work.”

Casper Koeller, Sceneblog

★★★★

“The artistic duo Tilde Knudsen and Peter Kirk never choose the easy path. Their latest production tells the extraordinary story of seven generations of pianists living in seven different houses.

Beginning with a chessboard whose pieces bear the names of the story’s characters, the past is brought vividly to life through a series of magnificent dollhouses that awaken the childlike imagination in audiences of every age.

Klaus Risager’s richly textured score—drawing on tango, flamenco, jazz and classical music—is woven organically into a refined and atmospheric soundscape. Combined with an almost lyrical lighting design, it creates a breathtaking poetic theatre universe.

Tilde Knudsen and Peter Kirk guide us through time with infectious enthusiasm, while never shying away from the painful moments—especially towards the end, when we finally understand why our guides through time and memory have taken us on this journey.”

Michael Søby, CPH Culture

★★★★

House upon House – Poetry of Memory and Loss

“With the rarely beautiful and poetic House upon House, Asterions Hus reaches directly into human grief. It tells the story of a traumatised woman and her husband’s attempt to reach her through music and a bond of love stretching back seven generations.

Peter Kirk’s warm narration carries the story, while Tilde Knudsen dances its emotions into being: bubbling joy, profound grief, and above all the longing for music in the touching scene of little Gertrud, whose mother died in childbirth, leaving her father’s heart forever changed.

Klaus Risager’s melancholic compositions, with the piano as their leading voice, become the production’s third performer. Together they weave a story spanning Danish history—from the age of Hans Christian Andersen and the bombing of the French School in Copenhagen to the counterculture of the 1960s and an undefined present.”

Anne Liisberg, ISCENE

“In Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal*, a knight plays chess with Death on a deserted beach. The game is played for his life. In Asterions Hus’ latest production,* House upon House*, another game of chess unfolds between life and death.*

Around the chessboard, Peter Kirk and Tilde Knudsen tell the story of seven generations, accompanied by the musical wizardry of Klaus Risager, whose original score forms the emotional backbone of the performance.

Together they have become an extraordinary artistic trio. Every time they create together, it feels as though three artists somehow become four.

Tilde Knudsen possesses astonishing physical grace. Suddenly we are swept into a dance with a veil, a cloak or even a miniature grand piano, and time itself seems to stop as she floats through the air, lifting both the audience and the performance into the enchanted space that has become Asterions Hus’ unmistakable signature.

Whenever I attend one of their productions, I arrive with a certain anxiety—not because I doubt them, but because I wonder whether they can possibly continue surpassing themselves after so many remarkable performances. Once again, they prove that we are in exceptionally capable hands.”

Michael Svennevig, Ørkendrømme

“The grand piano first appears as a tiny dollhouse piano, small enough to fit into a single hand. Then, as if by magic, it transforms into a larger instrument whose keys perfectly fit a child’s fingers.

This image blends with Klaus Risager’s dreamlike sound design, where nineteenth-century melodies mingle with contemporary minimalism and haunting repetitions. His score follows the strange fog of memory, searching hesitantly for melodies through heavy, melancholic piano chords.

It is in the twilight that Tilde Knudsen and Peter Kirk are at their most compelling. In Knudsen’s distant gaze, her sudden spinning pirouettes and strange, wandering movements in stocking feet, we understand a woman whose body remains while her consciousness drifts elsewhere.

Peter Kirk’s patient physical presence—his questioning glances and quiet repetitions—makes the emotional core almost unbearable: the pain of losing a loved one to dementia. The grief deepens further as the two performers gently lay old dresses one by one across the stage, creating a symbolic procession of generations laid to rest.”

Anne Middelboe, Teateravisen