It is a lovely summer afternoon in the forest. The gamekeeper, walking through the woods, pauses to have a rest in the heat. The cricket and the grasshopper make sweet music, but the tranquility ends abruptly as a frog starts chasing a mosquito. Now the vixen appears, still a mere cub. She starts a chase of her own, trying to catch the frog which she ends up driving right into the gamekeeper’s lap. The gamekeeper is charmed by the little vixen and decides to take her home as a pet for his children.

Time passes, and the vixen grows into young adulthood at the gamekeeper’s house. She She does not thrive in captivity. The gamekeeper’s foolish dog annoys the vixen, the gamekeeper’s son Pepik and his friend Frantik torment her, and when the vixen bites Pepik in self-defense, the gamekeeper fixates her with a leash. The dog, the arrogant rooster and his silly hens overbearingly advise the vixen to get used to her status as a pet, and the vixen is fed up with all of them. After vainly attempting to get the hens to rebel against their oppressive mate, she lures the rooster closer and attacks him. Seeing this, the gamekeeper tries to beat her, but the vixen escapes and runs off.

The vixen is now back in the woods. She finds a nice badger’s home, and when the grumpy old badger starts scolding her for intruding, she mocks him and manages to insult him so severely that he leaves his home.

In the world of the humans, the gamekeeper is visiting an inn, playing cards with the schoolmaster and the priest while the innkeeper Pasek brings them drinks. He mocks the schoolmaster who is infatuated with the young girl Terynka, and the schoolmaster gives his own back by teasing the gamekeeper about his escaped pet vixen. The gamekeeper sourly breaks up the company. On his way home the schoolmaster is very intoxicated and attempts to woo a sunflower, drunkenly mistaking it for Terynka, while the Priest laments the betrayal he once suffered by a young girl. The two men are startled by the gamekeeper who fires his gun as he suddenly spots the vixen in the woods. The vixen flees.

The vixen, now full-grown, meets a handsome fox. The fox catches a rabbit which he shares with the vixen, and when he starts romancing her she submits to his advance, taking him with her back to her home. Soon the vixen is expecting cubs and she and the fox rush off to be married by the woodpecker.

The poultry dealer and poacher Harastja is to be married to Terynka, and he is out hunting so that he for delicious venison to be served at his wedding. He and the gamekeeper put up a trap for the vixen, but she, the fox, and all their cubs immediately recognize the scheme. As they see that Harasjta carries a pannier full of poultry, they even trick him into falling and snatch the poultry from him. Infuriated, Harastja starts firing wildly. The cubs and the fox escape, but the vixen is fatally wounded and dies.

The gamekeeper and the schoolmaster meet at Pasek’s inn. The priest has been transferred to another parish and has written his old friends a letter saying that he is homesick. The schoolmaster is devastated at the news that Terynka is getting married, and the gamekeeper comforts him.

As the gamekeeper walks homewards through the forest he recalls the lovemaking of his youth and his old pet vixen who is now dead. He finds consolation in the thought that life is like a circle: It turns round and round, letting what is old wither away to make way for new sprouts. He sees the vixen’s young daughter playing and contemplates capturing her like he did her mother, but his plans are interrupted as a small frog jumps into his lap. The frog presents himself as the grandson of the frog that the gamekeeper once met on a summer afternoon.

Gamekeeper

John Lundgren
15/12, 18/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 14/1, 17/1, 25/1

Lars Fosser
27/1, 3/2

Gamekeeper’s wife

Elisabeth Halling
15/12, 18/12, 22/12, 14/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Johanne Bock
20/12, 27/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1

Priest

Sten Byriel
15/12, 18/12, 20/12, 22/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Morten Lassenius Kramp
27/12, 14/1

Schoolmaster

Bengt-Ola Morgny
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 5/1, 12/1, 14/1, 17/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Michael Kristensen
18/12, 27/12, 29/12, 8/1

Harasta

Jens Bruno Hansen
15/12, 20/12, 27/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1, 27/1

Simon Schelling
18/12, 22/12, 29/12, 14/1, 25/1, 3/2

Pasek

Gert Henning-Jensen
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 14/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Thomas Peter Koppel
18/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1

Pasek’s wife

Djina Mai-Mai
15/12, 22/12, 27/12, 29/12, 17/1, 14/1

Anna Rydberg
18/12, 20/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Little vixen

Gisela Stille
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 14/1, 17/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Sofie Elkjær Jensen
18/12

Young little vixen

Sofie Elkjær Jensen
15/12, 18/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 14/1, 17/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Little Vixen as child

NN
15/12, 18/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 14/1, 17/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Fox

Anne Margrethe Dahl
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 12/1, 14/1

Cornelia Beskow
18/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 17/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Badger

Anders Jakobsson
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 12/1, 14/1, 25/1, 3/2

Rudi Sisseck
18/12, 29/12, 5/1, 8/1, 17/1, 27/1

Dog

Tuva Semmingsen 
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 5/1, 8/1, 14/1, 17/1, 27/1, 3/2

Lise Davidsen 
18/12, 29/12, 12/1, 25/1

Rooster

Beate Mordal
22/12, 27/12, 29/12, 5/1, 14/1, 25/1, 27/1

Henriette Neess Borup
15/12, 18/12, 20/12, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1, 3/2

Hen

Cille Ebling 
15/12, 20/12, 27/12, 5/1, 12/1, 17/1, 27/1

Charlotte Meldgaard 
18/12, 22/12, 29/12, 8/1, 14/1, 25/1, 3/2

Owl

Tuva Semmingsen
15/12, 20/12, 22/12, 27/12, 5/1, 8/1, 14/1, 17/1, 27/1, 3/2

Lise Davidsen
18/12, 29/12, 12/1, 25/1

Jay

Henriette Neess Borup
18/12, 20/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1, 3/2

Woodpecker

Elisabeth Halling
15/12, 22/12, 29/12, 14/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

Johanne Bock
18/12, 20/12, 27/12, 5/1, 8/1, 12/1, 17/1

Mosquito

Petter Wulfsberg Moen
18/12, 20/12, 22/12, 5/1, 12/1, 17/1

Rasmus Gravers Knive
15/12, 27/12, 29/12, 8/1, 14/1, 25/1, 27/1, 3/2

The Royal Danish Theatre does not accept liability for printing errors. All information is subject to change.