Nína Hjálmarsdóttir
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EDEN (2024)
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Eden was produced by Reykjavík Arts Festival and MurMur productions and premiered in June 2024. It was restaged in May 2025 in Tjarnarbíó. Eden was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.
“Our Eden smells of pussy and freshly mown grass, with a pile of half-eaten apples in the corner. There’s something strange about our Eden, something off, something unsettling. Here, Adam & Eve don’t play their roles the way they always have.”
Embla Guðrúnar Ágústsdóttir and Nína Hjálmars delve into Genesis, positioning themselves in the original Garden. Eden is a queer crip paradise that decentres social norms and lets the audience connect with the erotic within themselves.
Embla Guðrúnar Ágústsdóttir is an independent academic, activist and performing artist whose research topics include sexual identity and pleasure in the lives of people with disabilities. Embla was nominated for the 2023 Icelandic Stage Awards as dancer of the year. Nína Hjálmars is a performance artist, academic and culture critic who has worked with such collectives as Sálufélagar and Sleikur. Recently, Nína has started to perform as a drag king.
Artists:
Authors and performers: Embla Guðrúnar Ágústsdóttir & Nína Hjálmarsdóttir
Dramaturg: Gréta Kristín Ómarsdóttir
Choreographer: Rósa Ómarsdóttir
Producer: Davíð Freyr Þórunnarson, MurMur Productions
Stage designers: Tanja Huld Levý og Sean Patrick O'Brien
Composer and performer: Ronja Jóhannsdóttir
Photograph & poster design: Gunnlöð Jóna Rúnars & Elís Gunnars
Show photographer: Juliette Rowland
Review examples:
"I would say I'm very fond of bible stories and genesis stories in a queer approach. It's magical to take these old scriptures, whether Old Norse or Christian, and peel its layers and look into its core. Peel it and dress it in silhouettes of those of us that don't fit into the strict paradigms of gender binaries and heteronormativity. Nína and Embla strip those old texts, turn them around from the inside out, reference and perform, change and break the form. They reference Milton, dive into the Old Testament, stop by in the Third Book of Moses, visit Auðhumla, Óðin, Vila and Vé, and connect the past with the scriptures of the present, stopping by in Glæsibæ, a bakery and the streets of Reykjavík."
- Sjöfn Asare, Lestrarklefinn, June 18th 2024
"The first part of Eden is outstanding. After a slow introduction where Ronja Jóhannsdóttir's music shines, Nína and Embla start revealing the story, weaving it with Gylfaginning and Völuspá. They connect this to artifical insemination and the capitalist abundance garden, Skeifan. It all becomes very fertile and fun and made the audience happy."
- Þorgeir Tryggvasvon, Morgunblaðið newspaper, June 26th 2024
"Eden is a poetic and impactful stage work by young artists with a compelling message. Embla and Nína lead the audience into an immersive world where societal norms and ideas about gender and disability are deconstructed in an original way. Voices that have until now remained quiet are finally heard, and in Eden, all bodies are equal."
- Vigdís Jakobsdóttir, Reykjavík Arts Festival
"Seeing a pregnant disabled woman that is also sexy and naked and a sexual being is something we should all have seen much earlier."
"The performance is also accessible, those that use a wheelchair were centered and not fixed by the corners of the auditorium... This is one of the reason that it matters that disabled artists are in control of all the layers of theatre making."