Danish theater to stage Breivik's manifesto

COPENHAGEN - Agence France-Presse

A photograph taken on July 25, 2011 shows bomb and terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik (red top) leaving the courthouse in a police car in Oslo. AFP photo

A Copenhagen theatre has sparked heated debate with its decision to stage a monologue based on the manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik, the extremist who killed 77 people in Norway last July.

The Cafe Teatret theatre's artistic director Christian Lollike set off an avalanche of angry reactions when he told Denmark's paper of reference Politiken on Thursday of the plan to adapt Behring Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto, posted online shortly before the July 22 attacks, for the stage.

"The piece will run from August 23 to September 15," and despite the criticism "will figure on next season's programme," theatre spokeswoman Jeanette Kruse told AFP.

She refused to give further details, saying the theatre had decided Lollike would exclusively give details of the new play to Politiken.

In his interview published by the paper, Lollike stresses that the twin attacks in neighbouring Norway were "a terrible tragedy," and that Behring Breivik "executed people in a very cruel way." "But the reasoning behind his actions are not unique. They express a political and ideological point of view. This can happen again," he said.

"What I'm afraid of is that Breivik's way of thinking will be left alone and will not be probed and reflected on," he added. Erik Ulfsby, who heads The Norwegian Theatre, rejected Lollike's justification for the piece.

"Lollike's argument is a bad excuse to draw attention to his project," he told Politiken.

On July 22, Behring Breivik, who claimed to be on a crusade against multiculturalism and the "Muslim invasion" of Europe, first set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people.

He then went to Utoeya island near Oslo, and, dressed as a police officer, spent more than an hour shooting and killing another 69 people, mainly teenagers, attending a summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party's youth wing.

In his manifesto, which he spent years writing, Behring Breivik describes himself as the "Marxist Hunter." In the tract, , titled "2083 -- A European Declaration of Independence," he reveals his admiration for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and calls for adherents to spawn large families of white European 'jihadists.' "If you are not willing to sacrifice your own life, then I would strongly advise you to make babies and ensure that they will be willing to sacrifice theirs when the time is right," he says at one point.

"I will be labelled as the biggest (Nazi-)monster ever witnessed since WW2," he acknowledged in the document, signed using an anglicisation of his name: Andrew Berwick, with the epithet: Justiciar Knight Commander, Knights Templar Europe, Knights Templar Norway.