The Hassan family

The performance in Skuespilhuset is unfortunately completely sold out, but will soon be on tour in Denmark.

By Sargun Oshana, based on the book of the same name by Steffen Stubager, at the initiative of Abdullah Hassan

Yahya Hassan's death in 2020 is as shocking as the comet impact from his debut lyric was. Left behind, Yahya's family stands in grief and shock. In Steffen Stubaker's captivating 2024 book, The Hassan Family, Yahya's mother and his four siblings, Kawther, Khadeeja, Abd Al-Salam and Abdullah, tell for the first time about Yahya and his growing up in the Trillegården living quarters near Aarhus. Their story shows an attempt to find a foothold in a pattern of rootlessness, refugee trauma, family violence, serious crime, placements, gang environment, death threats, incarcerations, social failures and incompatible parallel societies. These are voices reporting from a closed environment and a part of Danish society we rarely hear about from the stage.

“There's something in the poetry collection that you probably won't be too happy about,” Yahya said. Yes yes, I thought. Who the hell wants to listen to a perker?
- Khadeeja, Yahya's sister

Now the story of the family from Trillegården is brought to life at the theatre when award-winning Iraqi-Danish director Sargun Oshana dramatizes the story of a bygone reality in today's Denmark — the environment from which Yahya Hassan's pain and poems sprang. The four siblings are played by Ellaha Lack, Zere Celik, Arian Kashef and Wahid Sui, and Kurdish singer and musician Rezwan Taha composes music and songs and also appears on stage in the role of Yahya's mother, Hanan.

The Hassan family goes on a tour of Denmark. Read more here.

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