A grandly chaotic choreographic exploration 

In Verk och dagar (Works and Days), experiences from a journey to ancient Greece are interwoven with fragments from a fifteen-year-old performance. With both humor and gravity, Gunilla Heilborn attempts to make sense of the disjointed episodes she has collected and to explore whether reading both The Iliad and The Odyssey can truly help us understand the world better.

Verk och dagar consists of two parts. In the first, we are presented with grand tableaux bearing titles such as “A Place That Is Horrible in Winter, Harsh in Summer, Never Pleasant” and “The Rosy-Fingered Dawn.” Through mist, haze, and music, two dancers move—let us call them Squinty-Eyed Sophie and Loquacious Ludvig. With fleeting ease, they stroll across the stage, posing questions to themselves and the audience. Do you get seasick easily? Would you describe me as a typical Renaissance person? That I have many strings to my bow? Do you know what it feels like to drift in a ship frozen in ice?

In the second part, Heilborn herself navigates through earlier works in search of a beginning. Drawing from the stories of ancient poets, a recent trip to Greece, and her previous production This is not a love story from 2011, she explores whether it is possible to link one event to another—or whether it is perhaps the lack of logic that defines everything we do. She compiles lists of ships that have sailed the seas and of things that have been done—or should have been done. The essence of the work lies in its chaotic structure, yet several themes recur in both parts: travel, and what we remember of what we have experienced. As well as the question of whether it is possible to know what should be done on which days—and why.

The space, lighting, and music play a significant role in the performance and are created by Heilborn’s long-time collaborators Katarina Wiklund, Minna Tiikkainen, Mårten Nilsson, and Kim Hiorthøy.