The Snow Queen at Moesgaard. Gerda's journey under the open sky

Even before the performance starts, you can feel the very special atmosphere.

On the lawn in front of Moesgaard, people sit with blankets, pasta salads, wine glasses and coffee in thermoses. Some have made it a picnic experience, while others sit and enjoy the warmth of the sun over the bay. Children run around between the benches, and no one seems particularly interested in rushing anywhere.

And that's what's special about the performances at Moesgaard. They begin long before the first line.

When I find my place on the large outdoor set, the set design is already waiting. A giant eye in the middle of the revolving stage and the 4 tall LED towers. All open to the sky and with the bay as a backdrop.

The Ice Devil sends Gerda away

This year's big summer performance is Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, rewritten by Kim Fupz Aakeson and directed by Nicolei Faber.

The story begins with the Ice Devil and his three ice devil cubs, who have a kind of devil school in evil. They become the show's constant shadows and commentators on Gerda's journey. Almost like little dark circus figures, constantly watching to see if she makes a mistake.
It is their magic mirror that shatters over the world, sending a splinter into Kay's eye, so that he can no longer see all the beauty around him. The Snow Queen takes him to her cold kingdom, and Gerda sets off to find him again.

Laura Skjoldborg carries the performance beautifully as Gerda. She has a stubbornness about her that makes you believe in her journey all the way through. Because Gerda has a long road ahead of her, and she is met with a lot of resistance at every stage. Places that try to lure her into forgetting why she is actually on her way. Temptations that lie in wait everywhere. But she does not let herself be stopped. With pure stubbornness and a deep love that refuses to give up, she fights her way forward, time after time, from one meeting to the next.

And then there is the Snow Queen herself.

Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt plays her with icy calm and alluring at the same time. Not as a classic monster, but more like a cold that slowly sucks the life out of everything around her. When she finally steps forward, the performance changes character.

When darkness takes over Moesgaard

But if I'm being completely honest, it was after the break that the evening really hit me.
Because while the first act is still bathed in the evening sun, something happens when darkness slowly takes over Moesgaard.
The bay turns dark blue. The trees almost disappear around the stage. And the large LED towers begin to live in a completely different way with the snow, the stars and the northern lights. It all grows into the darkness, and you sit with the feeling that you are no longer just watching a performance, but that you are inside it.

This is exactly where the outdoor stage at Moesgaard can do something that other stages cannot.

When the performance ends, it's not just the story I take home, but the entire evening.

People on the carpets before the performance, the light slowly disappearing over the bay, the 3.000 people on the slope. And the feeling of sitting in the middle of a summer evening, where theater, nature and darkness suddenly began to work together.
So if you're going out there, do yourself a favor and get there early.

Bring a blanket and something cold to drink. Sit on the lawn a little longer than planned. And wait for darkness.

Good to know

• Where: Moesgaard, Moesgaard Allé 15, 8270 Højbjerg
• When: From May 21st – June 27th
• Director: Nicolaj Faber
• Playwright: Kim Fupz Aakeson – based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale
• On stage: Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt, Laura Skjoldborg, Alvin Olid Bursøe, Anton Hjejle, Simon Mathew, Carla Eleonora Feigenberg and others.
• Tip: Bring a sleeping bag or blanket – it gets cold when the sun goes down.