Beyond the Body – Eline Bjerkan

In the performance Charlie by Adrienn Hód, the wheelchair user Károly Tóth carries out a series of everyday tasks. Plugging a cord into an outlet requires many attempts when the fingers are completely stiff. Drinking from a water bottle seems almost exhausting when the body cannot bend properly. 

The performance is intimate and vulnerable, but also humorous when the audience realizes we are allowed to laugh together with the performer. Charlie is the performance that most gives me a so-called “aha moment.” The dancer’s actions highlight how living as the character Charlie involves a shift in the experience of time, in the sense that time is subjective. Of course, I already know that life for someone with a severe disability differs from my own, but the performance elevates the theme from practicalities to something existential. 

It makes me reflect not only on how time is experienced in Charlie’s case, but also on how both small and large events in life take on new meaning as a result.

Charlie is a highlight of the festival.