I Only Appear to be Dead

The title “I only appear to be dead” refers to the handwritten note Hans Christian Andersen placed on his bedside table at night, due to his fear of being buried alive. For most of his life, Andersen recorded his experiences in diary form, as a conscious form of staged documentarism. With the historical, social and technological development of 19th century Denmark and Europe as a thought-provoking background, he was constantly travelling in order to gain new impressions. Many journeys and extended stays abroad did not mean, however, that he ever lost sight of his native country or himself.

The performance focuses on the writer himself, using material from the gifted accounts and characteristic comments of his diaries. The Andersen we find in the diaries is a completely different person from the internationally celebrated writer of fairytales who “only writes for children”. Here darkness, doubt and fatality prevail. A voice from within that is only set free through the created work. The diaries bear harrowing witness to the fact that he found it hard to control his imagination. Obsessions and attacks of angst were the price of an imagination that led directly into the fairytales.