The Dreamer is one of Birgit Cullberg’s psychological and realist dance works. The ballet is based on Eugene O’Neill’s drama A Touch of the Poet that had its posthumous premiere at The Royal Dramatic Theater (Dramaten) in Stockholm in 1957. The Dreamer was first created on commission for a television company in Wisconsin, USA, using chroma key technology (also known as green screen). The work then premiered later that same year for Cullberg Ballet.
The goal was to create a ballet based on a work by O’Neill, but this came with its own set of difficulties. Until that time, no dance works had been created based on O’Neill’s texts. One explanation for this was that, while O’Neill was extremely deft with words, very little tended to happen of a scenic nature, thus rendering a point of departure for a movement based work challenging.
In A Touch of the Poet, Cullberg found a topic that interested her a great deal, namely that all people dream of success. Conversely however, when their dreams do not materialize, they flee into fantasy worlds. The protagonist of The Dreamer is former Major Con Melody. When, after shooting a count, he is stripped of his medals and thereby entrance to the fine upper-class world, he finds himself impoverished and destitute. His wife and daughter are charged with his care, as he descends into a deeper and more fantastical fantasy life to escape his situation.
The Dreamer premiered at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen on the 18th of February 1975. Dancer Bruce Marks performed in the lead role. The title in Denmark was The War Hero. When The Dreamer later premiered with the Cullberg Ballet at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, the work had been