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STÅR STILLE MENS JEG FALDER

STANDING STILL WHILE FALLING
HAMLETSCENEN 2025

HamletScenen & Copenhagen Chamber Performance

Composer: Hugo Gudmundsson

Staging: Tine Topsøe, Librettist, playwright: Miriam Boolsen

Scenography, Costume Design, Visual Staging: Catia Hauberg Engel

Lighting Design/Visuals: Viktor Holm Lauridsen

CAST:

Singers: Radmila Rajic, Lise Christensen and Markus Borg

Musicians: Kirstine Elise Pedersen, Karen Johanne Pedersen, Elaine Ruby and Katrin Mathiesen

NEWLY WRITTEN OPERA BASED ON SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Music drama about life and death. About faith. About hope. About breast cancer and love.

How do we find our footing when life changes forever? How do we get up again and maintain our strength?

STANDING STILL WHILE FALLING is a life-affirming story about three individuals’ struggle for a long and happy life in a disease-stricken reality with breast cancer.

Experience Shakespeare’s immortal sonnets as they capture the brutal realities of everyday life and are complemented on stage with poetic tones from a chamber ensemble. A newly written opera about the indomitable vitality of man.

“Shakespeare manages to describe the familiar so that we can sense the underlying reality. The experience of being able to see life more deeply and clearly, as a course of illness can, is given a voice in the performance through his immortal sonnets. The sonnets create an eye of the hurricane surrounded by treatment, prognosis, fear of death and consideration for the relatives” – Tine Topsøe, director

**** Kulturkupeen, “..successful musical experiment..”

STANDING STILL WHILE FALLING,  is a newly written opera, where poetry and newly created music for chamber orchestra meet in a surreal hospital universe. The performance is a tribute to the vitality and human courage that flourishes even under the most challenging circumstances when you are struck by breast cancer.

“Something is wrong. I push the thought away. Over and over again. I’m too busy living”

– STAND STILL WHILE I FALLING

Breast cancer affects both men and women. We follow Alice, Johanne and Frank, all three of whom confront the failure of the body and the unpredictability of life as breast cancer patients. Through the surgeon’s precision, Shakespeare’s timeless sonnets and surreal images, a story is woven that balances between fragility and strength. It is a tale of loss, transformation – and hope.

**** Setpaascenen, “..manages to intervene in the soul of the audience..”

A musical and visual ode to life

The opera’s newly written score, performed by a chamber orchestra, creates a strong and moving atmosphere that encapsulates both the pain and beauty of human life. The surreal hospital universe becomes a metaphor for the inner journey, where the body and soul struggle to find harmony.

**** CPH Culture, “..the high level of ambition is released..”

A tribute to the power of life

Standing still while I falling invites the audience into a world where we are reminded that life is fragile – but also incredibly strong. It is a performance that celebrates the human ability to find light in the darkness, strength in vulnerability and hope in the midst of struggle.

Come and experience an opera that touches the heart, lifts the mind and celebrates the indomitable power of life that exists in all of us. You are not alone.

NOTE:

This production is created with a proven approach to high sustainability, without compromising on the artistic level.

“So long as man can breathe

or eyes can see

So long lives this,

and this gives life to thee”

– Sonnet 18, W. Shakespeare

Stand still while I fall

**** Kulturkupeen, “..successful musical experiment..”

**** Setpaascenen, “..manages to touch the soul of the audience..”

**** CPH Culture, “..the high level of ambition is released..”