Real Love at Aarhus Theatre made the entire audience laugh about love and maybe believe in it a little again.

I left Aarhus Theatre with sore laughter muscles and a feeling of hope in my body.

I had just seen Real Love, Carolin Oredsson's new performance at Aarhus Teater Studio. A performance about love in a time when it has become far too easy not to. About swipe culture, about the fear of choosing, and about whether true love still exists.

And even before the performance started, I could tell that this was not going to be an ordinary evening at the theater.

The foyer leading to Aarhus Teater Studio was bathed in red. On the walls were declarations of love, names, hearts and small messages written in chalk. Some chose to continue writing on the walls, while others stood with their drinks and tried to figure out what it was we were actually walking into. It felt a bit like stepping into a mix of a love installation, a reality show and a very red teenage bedroom after an overly dramatic high school party.

A large altar was built against the wall, filled with candles, fruit, flowers and kitsch. Above it, in large white letters, was written “To love, may we dare to rest in it.” I later discovered that this was the actual title of the performance.

The actors shook hands at the entrance to the hall and welcomed us, as if they were the hosts of something we were all supposed to be a part of. And that set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Because Real Love at Aarhus Theatre is not a performance you just sit and watch. It is a performance you are sucked into.

Can Leonardo DiCaprio learn to fall in love?

The premise is so absurd that it somehow becomes brilliant.

The performance is based on the idea that we may have become bad at falling in love. That we are constantly looking for something better, especially with the swipe culture. The escape from commitment and the fear of choosing one person and staying with it.

And who symbolizes that better than Leonardo DiCaprio?

The man who is used in the play as the symbol of people who keep dating before feelings become dangerous. If Leonardo DiCaprio can fall in love, then maybe there is hope for all of us.

It sounds deeply strange. It is, and it's hilarious.

Leonardo, played with perfectly awkward Hollywood energy by Alexander Bryld Obaze, speaks American while the other actors float between Danish and English. It works because the show never tries to pretend that this is anything other than a play.

What happens along the way, I'll let you discover for yourself. Just know that the audience plays a role. That you can become a part of it if you want. That a no, thank you is also respected. And that you never know what's going to happen next. It's part of the whole performance. I sat with a little adrenaline in my body the whole way through because I couldn't sit back and fall. You're just with me the whole way.

The camera is the main character

Emma, ​​played by Emma Weyde, has a big video camera on her shoulder and follows Leonardo everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Even the places where he thinks he's alone.

The whole thing is projected onto a big screen in the hall so we can see him when he's not on stage. It's a mix of reality TV, documentary and Blair Witch Project, and it's one of the funniest things in the whole show. At one point they run around the whole theatre with the camera, while employees outside the show look at them in total confusion. The whole hall was about to burst out laughing.

The man at the sound and video console is also part of the conversation. He is not hidden away. The actors talk to him, ask him to change the music, ask him to find a certain clip. Aki Shiraishi Bech, who did the sound, sits in the middle of the performance, like a visible co-star.

When the laughter suddenly disappears

The good thing about Real Love is that it won't just entertain.
Amidst all the chaos, the performance slowly begins to dig a little deeper. Every time the audience has laughed the loudest, there is a sudden moment when the room becomes completely silent.

Clara Sophia Phillipson in particular hits the mark with her philosophical tales of love, falling in love and the fear of being abandoned. The performance quotes both myths and philosophers, but without it becoming heavy or instructive, quite the opposite.

It almost feels like a strange TED Talk about love in the middle of a reality show where someone is constantly losing control.
And just when I think the show is just fun and satire, it suddenly hits something real. Behind all the irony, there's something quite recognizable. The fear of not being enough, of being chosen out. And the hope that someone will one day stay by your side.

A community in the hall

The studio stage is small, and the audience sits on both sides of the stage floor. You don't just see the actors. You also see the other spectators. And because the performance lives on the fact that we are there, something happens in the hall that I haven't experienced before.

We laugh together and we hold our breath together. We're all in this together, each in our own way. And when it flips from silly to serious, it's not just my laughter that freezes. It's the whole room at once.

I can't remember the last time I felt like this. That feeling that we're together in something that's only happening right now and will never happen exactly like this again.

What's left?

The play is about a certain kind of love. The kind that exists between two people. The kind we swipe for, dream about, give up on, and look for again. And it highlights how hard it has become to find and how hard we try.

But I am left with another thought.

Love is so much more than that. It's the love for your children, for your friends, or your pets. It's the way I can stand still on a path and hear the birds, and suddenly be completely filled with something that resembles happiness. It's walking through Aarhus city center at dusk, when the light turns and the city becomes soft. It's sitting by Aarhus Bay and looking out over the water, and feeling that it's enough.

Maybe that's what Real Love really reminds us: that we've turned love into a hunt, and forgotten that it can be found in all the places where we're not looking for it.

A performance that makes you go home happy

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Real Love is how easy it feels.

The performance lasts an hour and a half, but it doesn't feel like it. Because I was curious the whole time. All the time a little unsure of what would happen in two minutes. And because the audience was laughing constantly. And not in that polite theatrical way. But in the real and uncontrolled way.

I saw the performance on a Saturday night and left Aarhus Theatre with a body that had laughed. And it really struck me how much we might need that right now.

Sitting in a room with strangers and laughing about love, chaos, dating culture, and our own hopeless attempts to find someone who will stay.
Real Love is strange, chaotic, touching, silly and surprisingly clever. And maybe that's exactly why it works so well.

Practical information

• Real Love plays at Aarhus Teater Studio from May 9 to June 10, 2026.
• Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes without intermission.
• Text and staging: Carolin Oredsson. Inspired by Liv Strömquist's graphic novel.
• Scenography and costumes: Toni Tora Botwid.
• Lighting design: Kim Glud. Sound design: Aki Shiraishi Bech.
• Cast: Mette Klakstein, Clara Sophia Phillipson, Malte Conradsen, Alexander Bryld Obaze and Emma Weyde.
• The performance has audience interaction. You can expect to be a part of it if you want to. A no thanks will be respected.
• Tickets and more information at aarhusteater.dk.