Daydreaming, escape from reality, the power of imagination … are you an escapist? If so, when? We occasionally withdraw from reality by daydreaming, listening to music, watching a film or by inventing a new reality. At the theatre, you will visit, for a moment, a world you may never have encountered before in your own escapist mind's eye.
Following acclaimed productions of Midsummer Night's dream at the Royal Swedish Opera, Playat the Opéra National de Paris and A Swan Lake in Oslo, Alexander Ekman created Eskapist,which premiered at the Royal Opera in 2019. As one of the world's foremost choreographers today, he has created ballets that invariably surprise and delight. Eskapist received standing ovations and every critically acclaimed performance was sold out. Dagens Nyheter described the evening as “magnificent”, Aftonbladet called it “enormously entertaining and tightly executed … a technically magnificent extravaganza” and Sveriges radio's Kulturnytt found it to be “pure magic … a dizzying piece of escapism”.
I have ‘escapised' a lot more than I thought I did. But I never realized that I was engaging in escapism. I have just found myself in various places where I have simply become absorbed in my own thoughts. I have built up inner worlds populated by persons I have never met, but who later appear as characters in my work. I have discovered that I'm a very active escapist.
Alexander Ekman
Choreography: Alexander Ekman
Music: Mikael Karlsson
Costumes: Henrik Vibskov