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60 years old, retired doctor, chief physicians Jan stares intensely at his daughter Louise. They are in a big empty room. Here it will unfold.
Hanne stands between them. They don’t look at her. Not yet. She speaks to both of them but they don’t listen. Not yet, but soon, when truths will come to light they will look at her and listen.
Louise looks scared. She better be. She knows it’s not about justice or truth. She knows that there is much more at stake besides guilt and truth. That it’s all about something else. He would really like to say that clearly to Louise. If he could and if she actually listened. But that’s a thing she has never been good at. She never listens. At least not to him.
And Hanne? He looks at her quickly. Perhaps it’s best it ended like this - after all. Perhaps it was the only way out, however tragically, he whispers to himself. He would really like to tell her that. If she could hear his whispers. If it wasn’t too late.
My wife is dead. She lies on one of the sofas in the tv room. Killed by stab wounds and with her entire torso covered in blood. An orange pillow is covering her mouth and half the chest. Under her armpit lies an empty beer bottle and on the other sofa a gardening glove. She is dressed in a white nightgown and a white kimono coated with swan feathers.
I’m certain she’s dead. I’m a doctor. I know what a dead person looks like. I recognize the paleness of death. There is nothing to do. Hanne is dead. That’s an indisputable fact. My wife through 40 years is no more.
At 3.10 AM I pick up the phone and call 911.
“My wife is dead. She’s been killed. Her throat has been cut and it is my daughter who did it.” 20 minutes later two policemen arrive at our countryside house outside the town of Suldrup. I’m standing in the yard welcoming them and guiding them into the tv room.
His name is Jan Flachmeyer and he is a retired doctor. He worked in private GPs. at big and small hospitals ans in Sweden for many years.
He’s a big and heavy man. Almost 240 pounds. He likes alcohol and has a foul temper. But he’s also a good doctor and a wise man. He know’s what he’s talking about. He is well renowned and respected for his professionalism and his results. Some people would say he is dominating and temperamental. Some would even say he is evil and manipulating.
Others would say that he is caring and loving. He is charming - that’s a fact. Otherwise he wouldn’t in addition to his wife Hanne have had several mistresses throughout the years. They must have fallen for something. Mistresses and forty years of marriage must mean something. Being married to Hanne has alway been hard for me. She is weak, hysterical and always out of balance. Constantly you have to take care of her, protect her and avoid disasters by keeping an eye on her. Constantly you’ll have to prevent her from making public scenes and put me and herself in an embarrassing and pathetic light.
I’ve always had to be the strong one. Keeping up appearances and track of it all. It was always me who had to face the consequences. When I had to give it all up and move all the way to Sweden when it came to light that she’d been stealing medicine from my colleagues.
It was always me who had to be a strong and solid rock in the middle of chaos.
Exactly what kind of father Jan Flachmeyer has been for his four children is hard to say. Most of them live far away in Copenhagen and Sweden. Most of them never come to visit and have expressed it loud and clear that they won’t see their parents anymore.
He could be both loving and caring, Louise told the police. But he had an awful temper. She told them he’d suddenly explode and his mood influenced everything in the house. Everything depended on his mood and what happened when he came home from work.
If you asked Jan, he would say he’d been a just and fair father who created a secure environment and a predictable life for his kids. Of course sometimes it was necessary with discipline and strict rules. But he did everything for their own good, no doubt about that.
It’s really up to them if they don’t want to see us. I don’t care. Such brats without respect and gratitude. Don’t they realize all we’d done for their sake? Don’t they realize it was all for their own good? Don’t they realize we just wanted to do good.
Of course, it’s wildly exaggerated what Louise said about me. She just said it to put me in a bad light. To make me look like a devil without feelings or fatherly love. She just said it to accuse me of killing my wife and her mother.
But wasn’t it me who instead of yelling, screaming calmly spoke to her when she got her first boyfriend? And wasn’t it me who instead of ban and control offered to help and answer all her questions? - and me who also offered to get her birth control if she needed it? And wasn’t it me who was always there when she needed help? And me who took her to the midsummer fire and listened to her for hours when we had to move to Sweden which, of course, was hard for her.
Well, Louise just can’t be trusted. She’s just a little bitch who can’t take care of herself, who can’t keep a man, who drinks too much and who is often way out too far.
Unlike her siblings, Louise didn’t cut Hanne and Jan off. She never managed it, that silly girl. Of course, she can’t take care of herself without her parents. It’s just empty threats when she says otherwise.
She lives just a few miles down the road. Her ex husband is the neighbour of Jan and Hanne and her children is entangled too much in the life of their grandparents. She hasn’t got the balls to cut them off. She needs them.
She can just go to hell, if that what she really wants. But she won’t. So why can’t she just admit that she needs her parents instead of being so dramatic all the time? Jan says she can just fuck off if that’s what she wants. But at the same time it’s always Louise he turns to when something is wrong with Hanne. When she’s hysterical and he really can’t take it anymore it’s always Louise he calls. When he needs support and someone to yell at how crazy his wife is. Then it’s always Louise he goes to and frustrated tells how insane Hanne is. It’s always Louise he he cries to that it’s either divorce or mental institution. It is always Louise who has to act when things explode.
Why should Hanne Flahmeyer die a summer night in 2006? That’s the central question in this game - and it’s also the central question for your character Jan.
Your task in the game is to explore Jan’s relationship with the two women in his life. Why did it end like this? What brought the family this far out? What happened before the killing and what secrets does these three people have? Is it really true what Jan claims: That it is Louise who killed her mother? Or is it more complicated? In the game your role is to defend Jan’s claimed innocence even though he actually could be a killer. Therefore you constantly have to balance your play making both scenarios possible. As a player you will never know if Jan is a murderer or not - and therefore both doors should be left open.
You’ll have to represent and play a man who is said to be wicked, manipulating and sometimes even violent - but who also refuses to have killed his wife. Therefore it’s important that you show Jan’s unpleasant and dark sides as well as playing him as a man with feelings, pride and humanity.
On the emotional level you can use Jan’s pride and feeling of being a father and husband to show both his sides. From his own point of view he’s a good, fair and superior man which you can bring to light during the game - especially if you at the same time show the darker sides of his personality.
Remember there is no truth in this game. There is only your and the other player’s interpretation of what happened. Therefore this character description isn’t the absolute truth about Jan. This description is an interpretation of a real human being and should only be seen as the basis for your play - not as the only truth about him. During the game you’ll find out much more about Jan and your interpretation will probably change drastically as you and the other player dig deeper and deeper into his family’s tragedy.
Why? She wants to know why? That’s all she asks for. No more than that.
Hanne stands between Jan and Louise, looking from one to the other. They do not look at her. They just stare each other down. Nobody says anything in the empty room which sets the scene for their silent showdown.
But in a short while they have to speak. In a short while they will see her. In a short while they’ll have to speak up and help her get closer to the answer she so intensly needs.
She looks at Louise, her daughter. Her oldest daughter. That poor woman who is no longer Hanne’s little girl. 37 years old and accused of murder. Hanne can’t stop thinking of all the things that little girl has gone through: A mother who wasn’t mentally present. Drinking, neglect and feelings of being lost.
Hanne would like to tell her she’s sorry, but she can’t. Not anymore. It’s too late. Now it’s all about other things. Now it isn’t about guilt and neglect and crying for forgiveness. Now it’s all about getting answers.
She looks at Jan, her husband for the last forty years. The man she has always loved and always will love. Even after all they have gone through. Even after all he has done and hasn’t done. Even though he has done terrible things and caused so much pain. He has, after all, always been there for her. She hates him and she loves him. That she really want’s to tell him. But that’s also too late.
Everything is too late now. Everything but the pain and the desire for answers.
My name is Hanne Flachmeyer. I’m dead. Killed by seven stab wounds. It’s either my husband or my daughter who did it. One of them killed me.
The police finds me in the tv room in our countryside house outside the town of Suldrup. I lie on one of the sofas. My torso is covered in blood. An orange pillow covers my mouth and half the chest. Under my armpit lies an empty beer bottle and on the other sofa lies a gardening glove. I’m dressed in a white nightgown and a white kimono covered by swan feathers.
It’s my husband Jan who brings the police to the tv room. It’s in the middle of the night. He called them. He said it’s Louise, our oldest daughter, who did it.
Pain has always been a part of my life. Always. It’s been my life. Pain, anxiety and tears - but luckily also lots of love.
Without Jan I would be nothing. Or without Louise or the other kids. They kept me going throughout the years. When I couldn’t sleep, when my whole body was in pain, when asthma, hay fever, allergy and other horrible things tried to rip me apart. When osteoarthritis and the decay of my body couldn’t be eased by alcohol, pills or morphine.
But my love has also hurt so much. When Jan wouldn’t give me what I sincerely begged him for. When we had to move to sweden to get away from the stupid accusations about me stealing medicine from Jan’s colleagues. When I wanted a divorce to get away from his cruel embrace. When Louise wouldn’t listen and support me. When I was totally alone.
Then love hurt so much. As much as it did me well.
And now, one of my loved ones has killed me.
She really doesn’t understand. Why did it have to be like that? Why was everything in the world against her? Why did Jan have to treat her this way? Why couldn’t he be that fantastic husband she really wanted to love with all her heart? Why was there other women, violence and fear? Why did he hit her when he also could be so amazing? Why was he filled with hatred when he also loved her? It’s the same with the kids. Why couldn’t they take more care of her? Why where they in such a hurry to get away from them and making clear that they didn’t want to see Hanne or Jan anymore? Hanne really doesn’t understand.
She just always wanted to do good. She never asked for much but couldn’t even get that. She really tried. Tried to be a good mother, a good wife and a good grandmother for her grandchildren who she sees all too seldom.
And with Louise as well. Hanne really thought that with her it would be different. That she - at least - would be there for them. That when she and Jan moved back to Suldrup after many years in Sweden it at least would get her closer. That Louise, at least, would be a real daughter with cake baking, visits by the grandchildren and happy smiles.
But that’s not the way it turned out with her either. She - of course - only thought of herself and ended up in a lot of messes. Why couldn’t Louise just stay out of trouble? Why did she have to end up in alcohol, divorce and neglecting her her children? Why should Louise also at that point be like her mother? In the town of Suldrup a lot of people feel sorry for Hanne. That poor doctor’s wife who is so fragile, haunted by pains and oppressed by a husband who she never would stand up against unless she is drunk. She is as good as the day is long, they say. And in spite of it all she loves her husband and five children. She does so much to meet other peoples needs and she sacrifices herself all the time.
But there is also a lot of people who don’t feel sorry for her. Some might say that she is just a pathetic woman who just have to pull herself together. That she was a bad mother who ran off into self pity and the fog of morphine. That she never had an independent thought and just hid herself behind her husband’s ego and extreme temper. That she actually isn’t that bourgeois, upper class doctor’s wife she pretends and wants to be. That she showed her true character when she tore down appearances and made scandals and embarrassments which Jan afterwards had to clean up after.
But besides all that there’s no doubt that Hanne is a loving person who really wants to do the right thing. Even Jan would say so - even in his darkest hours when he yells and calls her a crazy bitch og cries out about divorce, mental institutions and even worse. After all they have been married for forty years. After all, she have him, happiness, children and lots of care. And she has - besides all - always been there for him.
Why should Hanne die? That’s the central question for you in this game. Through testimonials, witnesses and flashbacks you’ll have to bring the departed Hanne to life and create your version of the story. You will have to find the main reason why the 60 year old doctor’s wife was stabbed to death a summer night in 2006.
As Hanne it is your task to play out a feeling of injustice, impotence and passivity. You can play out Hanne as person who wants answers and justice but has a hard time getting it.
You can successfully focus on the duality of Hanne. You can play her as insecure and afraid and at the same time strong enough to confront her husband and daughter.
You can also focus on her feeling guilty for her impotence. She has always been mentally absent and has often let her children down. Instead she has run off into self pity and abuse of medicine and alcohol - and for that she feels a lot of guilt. Therefore you can also focus on her never being able to take control of her own life.
Remember there is no truth in this game. There is only your and the other player’s interpretation of what happened. Therefore this character description isn’t the absolute truth about Hanne. This description is an interpretation of a real human being and should only be seen as the basis for your play - not as the only truth about her. During the game you’ll find out much more about Hanne and your interpretation will probably change drastically as you and the other players dig deeper and deeper into her family’s tragedy.
37 years, divorced mother of two children Louise stares intensely at her father. It’s quiet here. Totally quiet in the empty room which sets the scene of their showdown.
Hanne, Louise’s mother, stands between them. They don’t look at her. Hanne speaks but nobody listens. That’s the way it’s always been with her. Nobody listensto her. Not even herself. She’s a woman who everyone always tries to ignore and forget about. Nobody has ever taken her seriously. Not before now. Not before she in a short while will force Louise and her father into the darkness in search of answers. Answers they all need but doesn’t want to face.
There’s so much Louise wants to say. Especially to him - but certainly also to her who stands between them. To her who is now dead and therefore made all this happen.
Louise blinks and shivers a bit before she again looks at the man in the room. The man who calls himself her father. The man who - after all this - now stands in front of her and stares as back as hard as she stares at him.
Louise is afraid, very afraid. Not just of him. Also of her. And maybe even of herself and the truth which never will be fully uncovered. Soon the contours of a truth will be vaguely visible out there in the fog. But in the darkness nothing is what it looks like. She knows that. It scares her.
The police says I killed my mother. They say I just have to admit it. They hardly asked if it’s really true. They just assume it’s right because that’s what my father told them.
They brutally entered my house. I was naked, ready to take a shower. Covered in blood I wanted to wash off. I was under arrest, they said. Charged for the killing of my own mother. I just tried to help her, I said. They didn’t believe me.
They said I hid my clothes on purpose. There had to be a reason why it was all blood stained and left in the washing room behind the tumbledryer. I had left the crime scene and walked several miles to my home afterwards. I tried to run away, they said. Someone had seen me walking apathetic in the side of the road away from my parent’s house.
It’s true I was in the house, I told them. But it was my father who did it, I also told them. I was in shock and just wanted to get away, I said. Therefore I walked from the house.
I sat in my kitchen for five hours before they drove me to the prison. I hardly remember what happened. They asked me the same questions again and again. And I answered again and again. I told them hundreds of times it was my father who killed my mother.
And all the time I could hardly think of anything but my children. My poor kids who had to watch their mother sitting there in the middle of the night without any of the dignity I worked so hard to build through the years. Of all things in the world I just wanted to hold my kids and tell them that everything would be all right.
Her name is Louise Laursen and she is 37 years old. She lives in Suldrup in northern Jutland, just a few miles from her parent’s house. The house the parents moved back to two years ago. The house where Hanne now lies dead on one of the sofas in the tv room.
Originally she was named Louise Flachmeyer, daughter of Jan and Hanne, but when she married Poul she threw the Flachmeyer name away. And when she a few years later was divorced she didn’t take it back. She probably saw no reason for that. She apparently never felt like a Flachmeyer.
She is the oldest daughter and bigger sister of four younger siblings. She was expected to look after them and take care of them. That was her first priority, she was told. Friends, boyfriends and stuff like that were only an options if there was time. Especially when Louise’s mother didn’t manage to take care of her children. When Hanne was mentally absent, weak and disappeared into herself and all that medicine Louise’s father prescripted her. Then it was Louises job to keep things together. When Hanne was feeling bad for herself, drunk or made scenes at the supermarket Louise had to step up and take control of it all.
When I grew up we never argued with our parents. That’s how it was. We behaved well. All five of us. We did what we had to and accepted the heavy discipline without questions.
I remember a friend of mine who called her mother a bitch. I was shaken. It would never happen in my family. I never even considered saying things like that. That was an impossible thing in our regime at home - a regime where someone had forgotten the difference between respect and pure fear.
But the worst wasn’t fear and rigid rules. The worst thing was that I always did what was expected of me and still I was called a shitty kid and a silly girl. I got top grades, took care of my siblings and tidied my room. And still I was verbally put down in dirt and beaten up.
And in spite of all this I never stood up against them. I just accepted it all. Did what I had to do. Said ‘yes’ and ‘sir’ and was the big grownup girl my father should be proud of. But despite of all this my father seemed proud of one thing only: himself and his work as a doctor.
Of course there were happy moments when we were kids. But we were always afraid that it suddenly might change. Afraid if today’s mood was bad. Afraid of how we were expected to act. Afraid if Mum was unable to do anything today and therefore would cause total chaos in our home.
But of course there were hugs and kisses. There were days where Dad really surprised us and was the best dad in the world. And there were days where mum had energy to play with us and wasn’t the normal absent ghost.
For instance I remember when Dad and I sat alone by the midsummer fire and he told me a secret: That we had to move to Sweden. Or when he assured me that he of course would help me with advice and birth control when I at some time would get a boyfriend. And when he didn’t freak out when I dropped out of business school. Instead he just took my hand and assured me that everything would be ok.
There are very different opinions about Louise in the town of Suldrup. Many people like and care about her - especially at the local school where she works as a substitute teacher. But there is also many people who are very sceptical when they meet her. A lot of people know she often drinks too much and has in periods taken antabuse pills to prevent her from drinking. And some people have even tried to get her in trouble by anonymously accusing the single mum of neglecting her children.
People who know Louise know that accusations of neglect is the worse thing you could ever do to her. She loves her children above anything else. She would do anything for them. As long as the kids are happy and in safe hands she doesn’t care much about anything else. She doesn’t want to be like her own mother. Nobody should ever be able to call her a pathetic wimp.
And that is why cruel rumors like these hurt her so much. That’s why she would do almost anything to disprove it. That’s why she would work hard to get justice and keep her honor and facade. Therefore she really would like to keep away from drinking and wishes she could avoid falling back to it once in awhile. Therefore she really wants to be that perfect mother she always dreams about being.
Louise has often decided never to see her parents again. Like her siblings has done. She really can’t take it anymore. Always conflicts and neglects. Always too much pain. It has to end, she promises herself again and again.
But she’s not able to take the final step and say stop once and for all. She always falls back and comes to visit when Mum begs her to come by with the kids. When she meets her parents in the Supermarket she always walks up to them to say hello. When Mum looks ill and Dad comes by to get Louise’s help she is unable to say no. When he’s yelling and screaming about his crazy bitch of a wife who should be in a mental institution and he wants a divorce it’s always Louise who comes to help and lowers the tempers.
She really can’t leave them alone even though she really wants to.
Why should Hanne Flahmeyer die a summer night in 2006? That’s the central question in this game - and it’s also the central question for your character Louise.
Your task is to explore the complicated relationship between Louise and her parents. Is it really Louise who killed Hanne as her father says? Or is it actually the other way around as Louise keeps saying? How did it end up like this? What happened before? In the game your role is to defend Louise’s acclaimed innocence even though she actually could be a killer. Therefore you constantly have to balance your play making both scenarios possible. You as a player will never know if Louise is a murderer or not - and therefore both doors should be left open.
During the game you can focus on Louise’s feeling of being powerless and split between her own needs and her bonds to her parents. At the same time you can focus on her being strong and full of will power. If she’s too strong and independent you can focus on her alcohol abuse and struggle of being a good mother. And if she’s too weak you can work on emphasizing her ability to manage it all in spite of tough odds and a heavy baggage.
Remember there is no truth in this game. There is only your and the other player’s interpretation of what happened. Therefore this character description isn’t the absolute truth about Louise. This description is an interpretation of a real human being and should only be seen as the basis for your play - not as the only truth about her. During the game you’ll find out much more about Louise and your interpretation will probably change drastically as you and the other player dig deeper and deeper into her family’s tragedy.

Source: http://download.alexandria.dk/files/scenario/3751/Original%20Suldrup%20-%20roles%20-%20english.pdf