“In the performing arts, you can never be sick, can you?” asks Helene Kvint in The Show Must Go On!

In this performance, a female actor’s personal #metoo experience is framed in the form of a tempestuous, funny and touching stand-up show. The sexist and unfair working conditions in the performing arts industry have left their mark on her body, until one day it dramatically says no. This is followed by a course of illness which means, despite numerous hospital admissions, that she completes the premiere and the entire period of the show she is in, but with a constant fear of passing out on stage! The performance is based on personal experience from the performing arts industry, but it is a story about situations that most people can recognise, regardless of which industry they work in. The work asks how, as an actor – and particularly as a woman – you can ignore illness and severe pain, because the show must go on!

Helene Kvint is an independent stage artist, performer and actor who trained at Cantabile 2. She is a co-founder of the performance groups Second Hand Women (CZ) and CoreAct. CoreAct was closed down in 2021.