Or has she? It transpires, in fact, that she has. In the middle of supper she says that she has killed someone.
Maybe it is OK?
The family and guests are shocked: Anna Sophie Hedvig pushed Miss Moeller, the vicious and tyrannical headmistress-to-be down the stairs on purpose. Anna Sophie Hedvig is a murderess! But the assembly does not agree that the deed was wrong. For Anna Sophie Hedvig defended her own little world. She lifted her hands from their customary place in her lap and acted against the injustice of her world. She risked something - she reacted. Maybe it isn't all wrong?
Dangerous neutrality
Kjeld Abell wrote Anna Sophie Hedvig in 1939 when Denmark was facing World War II. In the years before the war - during the progress of the German Nazis - the Danish government had been neutral - a nicer word for passive, and urged the ordinary Dane to be likewise.
Most Danes followed the government's request. Apart from the few, who either joined the resistance movement or went to Spain to fight Franco's regime. These latter were the great heroes. And then there were the Anna Sophie Hedvigs. The everyday heroes and heroines, the ordinary people. From their small world, they only saw glimpses of the big world and its opportunities. That's exactly what Anna Sophie Hedvig did when she faced Miss Moeller at the top of the stairs. She realised that - like now - she had the chance to change the world, change her life and push the evil Miss Moeller down the stairs.
Would you have done the same thing?
Lone Nyhuus is a former dancer and choreographer. As a freelance journalist she works for the DR P2 radio programme Teatermagasinet (The Theatre Magazine).
Anna Sophie Hedvig, 1939. Clara Pontoppidan as Anna Sophie Hedvig and Karin Nellemose as Esther. Photo: Huset Mydtskov.