Mathias Kryger Hansen (and Marilyn Monroe)

My friend Mathias was telling me the other day this beautiful story of his childhood… I asked him to write it done and here it is…

“I had an obsession with Marilyn Monroe when I was a child. I had obsessions with a lot of thing, like ballet, figure skating and later on Whitney Houston, but especially Marilyn Monroe had a strangely persistent appeal to me.
On one wall of my room I had a poster of this iconic version of Marilyn where she stands on the subway grate in an urban street wearing that fabulous white dress that flies up but is held down by her soft arms in that particularly flawless pose. I wanted to be her but at the same time I was her.
My mother (who is a fragile but also strong and proud woman and who in those days back in the early to mid eighties flirted with left wing feminism on a grass roots level in the provinces of Denmark) was into making her own and her two children’s clothes. One of my favourite (in hind site anyways) pieces of clothes that she made for me, was a brown and beige velour vest with a white dove appliquéd on the back – the dove was carrying a palm branch in it’s peak – a symbol for peace. So, with a mother by the sewing machine, come Halloween, she naturally made the costumes for my sister and me.
For a long time I had had this image of me walking into the Halloween party in the kindergarten wearing exactly what Marilyn was wearing on my poster. Only, the picture being black and white, I imagined my version of the Marilyn dress in a dusty peach. I made drawing after drawing of this dress and left them in strategic places around the house for my mother to see. As Halloween came closer I eventually had to put into words what my wish for this year’s costume was: The peach version of the Marilyn Monroe dress.
I have, and have always had, a round face with delicate features, high cheekbones and long eyelashes. Back then when I still had a fair amount of hair on my head, it was straight and blonde and had some length to it. My voice was high and I was a careful child. So, I was often mistaken for a girl. On top of that, I loved dressing up. In all sorts of styles and ethnic themes using my mother’s wardrobe and the dress up clothes my sister and I had and loved.
The day before Halloween my mother still hadn’t made my carefully planned out breathtaking peach dress. In fact, she hadn’t made any costume for me at all. I don’t remember being nervous or stressed out about it, so my mother must have convinced me in her calm voice, that a costume would be ready for me the next morning.
And a costume was ready. Only, it was not the peach coloured Marilyn dress, but a red and white clown’s costume.
My reaction was stoic. No tears, no rolling around on the floor in anguish, no tearing up the costume. I put it on, painted my face white and red and headed for the Halloween party.
The thing is that this specific costume had a feature to my liking. The collar that spread out under my face in layers of red and white fabric was constructed in a way so that it wasn’t attached to the rest of the costume. Basically it was just an elastic band with the fabric sewn unto it and this amazing elastic and fabric construction had potential: Once I arrived at the kindergarten I released myself from the soft yet so hard bonds of the clown’s costume and there, stripped to my underwear, I pulled the red and white elastic band collar down to my waist, and thus created a more suitable outfit that corresponded well with my glamorous ideas of my Halloween entrance. Okay, so it wasn’t the peach coloured Marilyn Monroe dress, but it was my very, very own red and white mini skirt.” Mathias Kryger Hansen


[Marylin rehearing a scene]