“★ ★ ★ ★ (and a half) exploratory, honest and poignant”

“★ ★ ★ ★ [ if you] long to be moved in a direction you didn’t know you could be moved to in a direction you didn’t know existed, then This is Why We Live may be the show for you”

“A highly successful experiment proving poetry’s ability
to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries—and even make the leap from page to stage
”

“This is Why We Live is a thematic bouquet which explores the worlds in which we live, both animate and inanimate”

“70 minute mimetic rendering of Szymborska’s poetic world that embraces humor, pathos, absurdity, and tragic recognition
”

“This is a theatre piece that relights the aura of routine, day-to-day life for our self-obsessed times.”

“Pour sa première création internationale, la cie Open Heart Surgery nous offre une plongée fantasque à la découverte de la poésie sensible et éclatée de Wislawa Szymborska. Mise en corps clownesque dans un champs d’oignons et de lucioles. Une proposition sincère et habité”

“Flirts with contemporary expressionism... the short bursts of humour breaks up the tragedy (and) are all the more effective for their unexpectedness.”

“philosophical musings interspersed with brilliantly choreographed dance and physical theatre”

“[Open Heart Surgery Theatre] is to be applauded for demonstrating the boundless possibilities afforded by physical theatre [ ...a] melancholy quest for freedom”