Perhaps he is the first consequent modernist among Danish playwrights with his use of a flash back Chinese box system and a growing use of symbols and parallel actions.
Abell worked as a stagehand and a costume designer in Paris before he got his big break as a playwright in 1935 with Melodien, der blev vœk 1935, (English translation The Melody That Got Lost, 1939),[1][2] which is a playful comedy about spiritual disorientation in a technological society; it is also expressionistic in that it utilizes non-verbal and unrealistic elements, undoubtedly inspired by ballet.
In this play Abell describes the life of the "white-collar worker" limited by old-fashioned conventions, and it is a fantasy about the mental emancipation of "the little man".
These works include Anna Sophie Hedvig (1939, English translation 1944),[1] a defence of violence as a necessary means against tyranny and a criticism of passive humanism, beyond any doubt inspired by the Spanish Civil War, and Dronning gaar igen (The Queen on Tour, 1943).
Hailed in his prime as a fresh and humorous reformer, critic and teaser of Danish theatre and later respected for his anti-fascist attitudes.