The Bellevue Teatret ( English: Bellevue Theatre) is a theatre in

Klampenborg Klampenborg is a northern suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is located in Gentofte Municipality, Gentofte municipality, directly on Øresund, between Taarbæk and Skovshoved. Like other neighbourhoods along the Øresund coast, Klampenborg is an ...

at the northern outskirts of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Opened in 1936 to the design of

Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects, Hon. FAIA (; 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to functionalism (architec ...

, the building is considered one of his most important architectural works and exemplar of Danish functionalism. The theatre is part of a scheme also including the adjoining Bellevue Beach and residential block and was, at the time, seen as a manifestation of "the dream of the modern lifestyle".

History

In the early 1930s, Arne Jacobsen won a competition for a masterplan for the Bellevue area in Klampenborg,

Gentofte Municipality Gentofte Municipality () is a municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') in the Capital Region of Denmark (''Region Hovedstaden'') on the east coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. It covers an area of , and has a total pop ...

, shortly after opening his own architectural office in 1930. The Bellevue Teatret was the last stage of this scheme, which also included facilities for the local Bellevue Sea Bath and the Bellavista residential buildings. The theatre opened in 1936 as a mondain summer theatre. It closed a few seasons later, then operating as a

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

until 1980, when it was reopened as a theatre and film centre by Jes Kølpin.

Building

The building is considered one of the most important architectural work by Arne Jacobsen, exemplar of early Danish functionalism. The inside has

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

decorations and is noted for the retractable roof. Walls, balcony and

proscenium A proscenium (, ) is the virtual vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame ...

are clad in

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...

and bamboo. The

front curtain A front curtain, also known as a (front-of-)house curtain, act curtain, grand drape, main curtain or drape, proscenium curtain, or main rag is the stage curtain or curtains at the very front of a theatrical Stage (theatre), stage, separating it fr ...

shows a beach girl, painted by Åge Sikker Hansen.

Repertoire

Since the reopening as a theatre, the repertoire has been dominated by modern music performances, particularly

rock musical A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concep ...

s. An annual tradition is a Summer Ballet. Until the 2008 season produced in cooperation with Copenhagen International Ballet, it is now made in produced in cooperation with

Tim Rushton Timothy John Rushton MBE (born 18 March 1963 in England) is a British choreographer and from 2001 to 2018 artistic leader of the Copenhagen-based Danish Dance Theatre, Denmark's largest modern dance company. Tim Rushton was trained at The Royal ...

and Danish Dance Theatre.

Bibliography

* Strømberg, Ulla: ''Bellevue Teatret. Arkitektur og teater i Arne Jacobsens bygningsværk''. Forlaget Bogvaerket.dk

References

{{coord, 55, 46, 39.2, N, 12, 35, 23.7, E, source:dawiki_region:DK_type:landmark, display=title Arne Jacobsen buildings Buildings and structures completed in 1936 Functionalist architecture Listed buildings and structures in Gentofte Municipality Listed theatres in Denmark Modernist architecture in Copenhagen Theatres in Copenhagen 1930s architecture in Denmark