Birgitta Egerbladh: «My Heart is Bursting»

Simultaneously with the bursting of the first buds in the backyards of Stockholm, hearts are bursting in Birgitta Egerbladh’s dance-theatre-opera “Mitt hjärta brister,” collage of dance, theatre and opera presented in a sketchy non-linear fashion – reflecting real life. “Mitt hjärta brister” could be seen as a sequel to “Händelser i hemmet” (What Happens at Home). This time Egerbladh is examining not the physical risks but the emotional hazards lurk­ing in our seemingly secure homes, despite all their labour-saving and comfort-increasing furnishings and fittings.

Trivial scenes from everyday life are fuelled with operatic drama – which works quite well since life is constituted of 99% cliché, where words have lost their mean­ing but the body still tells the truth. But unlike plates crashing, hearts burst almost unnoticed. Perhaps this is the reason why the physical expression here is more subdued than in previous works, as if Egerbladh is trying to get her audience to be more attentive. The three dancers, Françoise Joyce, Bernard Cauchard and Elisabet Karlsson, are skilful in getting this low-key choreography across to the audience. They have all worked with Egerbladh for some time ...