Director's Message - Babette's Feast

It is always an honour to get to be in the rehearsal room where the magic of a play coming together happens, to watch the characters take their first breath and the actors relax into the show. Babette’s Feast has been a particular joy to pay witness to, and to hold space for.

Photo by Manu Acosta

In the published script of this show, the playwrights included the following:

This play is dedicated to strangers in foreign lands, for their courage and their gifts.

This dedication echoes the themes of embracing The Stranger (and her powerful gifts!) that comes up in this story. I feel the call to honour this dedication for our production, as it is a universal truth that humans are creatures meant to live in community. To turn to each other in challenging times, and see each other's gifts and strengths.

A piece of historical context for Babette that I feel is important to include is that she fled Paris in May of 1871 after the fall of the Paris Commune. The Paris Commune was a working-class civilian led occupation of the city of Paris after The Communards killed two French Army Generals. This allowed the civilian occupation to run Paris, and attempt to establish a new government after decades of constant changes.

Babette’s Feast has been a particular joy to pay witness to, and to hold space for.

It lasted a brief two months when the national French Army marched on Paris in what’s known as the semaine sanglante (bloody week) where they executed 10,000-15,000 of The Communards, taking approximately 43,000 prisoners. After Paris was seized back under the control of the French Armey, there was a mix of pardoning, trying and executing, exiling and putting prisoners into forced labour. This was the Paris that Babette was fleeing.

Even when we can’t hear the song of hope, the song continues to play, and one day we will hear it sing again.

She arrives in Berlevaag, having seemingly run from Paris straight to this small town in Norway where we find ourselves for this tale. I find sitting in the centre of this story a tale of hope. Emily Dickinson wrote a poem, Hope is the thing with feathers.

Hope is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -....

Even when we can’t hear the song of hope, the song continues to play, and one day we will hear it sing again. I believe Babette’s Feast sings us a piece of that song.

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SHAUNA AKKERMANS is the Director of Babette's Feast, Artistic Associate of 9th Hour Theatre Company, as well as a performing artist. Babette's Feast is playing at The Gladstone Theatre November 6-15th, 2025 as part of their 2025-26 professional season of theatre.