EXTRA PERFORMANCE!
We must stay in touch – a performance about friendship
by and with Emil Gittansson Jensen
The tour premiere sold out at breakneck speed and now we are opening up another date for the performance - take advantage!
The award-winning artist and poet is back with a new performance and tour through Sweden. With his unique blend of music and speech, humor and seriousness, personal and global, Emil infuses courage and strength into his contemporaries.
"The performance revolves around the theme of friendship as a phenomenon. This so undervalued relationship, vital for us as human animals and the basis for all solidarity", he says himself about the theme.
By turning and twisting concepts with the help of an old overhead projector, through spellbinding music and fiery speeches, and not least through his deeply personal stories, Emil leaves no one untouched. The red thread of friendship includes everything from historical retrospectives to glimpses of the future, but it is also about loneliness and the extreme individualism of our time.
"Recently, I've lost my best friend, who took his own life, and both of my parents, who became my closest friends over the years. This has made me think about what a true friend is. How to stay in touch - regardless of whether someone is alive or not! Why does friendship have such a low status, in both art and society? And why are all the quotes about friendship so tacky?"
Over the years, Emil has emerged as one of our most unique and beloved stage personalities, with unique banter that can turn into songs, spoken word, short lectures and stand-up comedy. Or lying tragedy as he himself calls it.
In "We Must Stay in Touch," he now explores the possibilities of performing arts even further, with the help of director Siri Bengtén. At the core lies Emil's treasure trove of songs, and of course he has a Band of Friends with him – with Anna Dager, cello, Hanna Ekström, violin, and Staffan Findin, trombone.
"I've noticed that several of my previous songs revolve like planets around this particular theme and these now, together with the newly written ones, have a whole new solar system. Just like you yourself change in different encounters. Songs are like pretend friends the more I think about them."
Emil Jensen – now also Gittansson, as a tribute to his mother – has released eight acclaimed albums, several books, is heard regularly on Swedish Radio as a host in "Goodmorgon världen" and "Tankar för dagen" and as a multiple-time praised Winter and Summer speaker.
He has received the Nils Ferlin Prize for his poetry, the Evert Taube Prize for his songwriting, the Karl Gerhard Prize for his shows and has been nominated for the Martin Luther King Prize for civil courage. He was also recently awarded the ABF Culture Prize with a motivation that in many ways highlights Emil's artistry.
From the Justification:
“Through his unique combination of music, poetry, stories and social engagement, he creates art that both touches and changes. With equal parts playfulness and seriousness, he reminds us of the importance of solidarity in a time often characterized by individualism and harsh contradictions. Emil has a special ability to make the invisible visible – to highlight the small moments, the forgotten perspectives and the voices that otherwise risk not being heard.”