International Authors' Stage: Michael Cunningham (US)

The American author Michael Cunningham is one of the greatest and most celebrated stylists in American literature. He is known for his excellent ability to focus on modern families. And got his breakthrough with the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours in 1998, which was later made into a film with Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman in the leading roles. Last year, the Norwegian playwright and writer Eline Arbo recreated the work in a stage version with a dream team of Danish actors and the play was performed in the Royal Playhouse to full houses.

Back with first novel in nine years

Cunningham, who is a well-known LGBT+ author, will talk in the Queen's Hall about his latest novel DAY, with which he has managed to captivate both readers and the audience. After nine years of waiting, he is back with this new novel, which has been praised to the skies both in the international and Danish press. In Politiken, the work was praised with these words: "Michael Cunningham gets close to the dynamics of a rainbow family, where everyone, including heterosexual Dan, has a crush on Robbie, who is gay (...) In the beautifully translated 'Day', Cunningham merges life and death in an excellent modern family story that is coloured by SoMe life on the web, but also by the floodwave of death caused by the pandemic."

What is the meaning of a family?

Day is a triangle drama in three parts, each taking place on 5 April, the first in 2019 in the morning, the second in 2020 in the afternoon, and the third in 2021 in the evening. Within the simple structure, a complex theme unfolds. A triangular drama where everyone tries to explore and examine the limits of what a family means, which in the pandemic years becomes even more complex than it already was. Partly because a family got very close, at least physically, to each other in the physically limited spaces. Partly because so many people in the US died from the dangerous virus.

Participants

Michael Cunningham