A lyric essay by two writers and academics who are victim survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrated by their biological fathers. Taking a survivor-centred approach, and referring to their own lived experience, Clare Best and Patricia Debney interrogate representations of, and allusions to, CSA in the 2025 opera Festen* in particular, and in the arts more generally, focusing on themes such as denial, use of language and the aftermath of trauma.
*The opera Festen (composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, librettist Lee Hall) was first staged at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in February 2025. Turnage and Hall based their opera on the 1998 Dogme 95 film with the same title, directed by Thomas Vinterberg. In Festen, revelations of CSA are made by Christian and Helena at their father Helge Klingefeldt’s sixtieth birthday party. The drama revolves around the reactions and interactions of party guests, hotel staff and various members of the family including the perpetrator Helge and his wife Else (mother to his children).