Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus
Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus
Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus
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Performing arts<br />
In performing arts, too, <strong>Brugge</strong> 2002 provided for a diverse and yet very distinctive range of<br />
dance, theatre, new media and “performance”. We deliberately opted for innovation and for<br />
works that had not been put on before. New creations took precedence over existing pieces,<br />
although all of the latter were also new to the Bruges stage. Playing on a current trend and a<br />
desire on the part of many performing artists and directors, the programmes often transcended<br />
disciplines and combined speech, dance and music. Performances were given in various<br />
locations; in rooms technically fitted out as theatre halls and in more unexpected places.<br />
Innovators and trend-setters<br />
One of the most striking projects was undoubtedly Dogtroep in the Bruges prison. The<br />
Dutch theatre company Dogtroep is renowned for its non-traditional approach. For<br />
four weeks the actors and theatre makers let themselves be locked up in the prison<br />
in order to prepare a performance with the detainees, in which nobody knew who<br />
were the prisoners and who were the actors. The life and stories of the detainees and<br />
the potent creative experience of Dogtroep resulted in a work that made a lasting<br />
impression. All the component aspects of this project – the preparation, creation,<br />
presentation, and the close consultation with the Ministry of Justice and the prison’s<br />
administration – made it an unforgettable event, which remains clearly etched in the<br />
collective memory of the Cultural Capital Year.<br />
29<br />
CONCISE<br />
Another project that left a lasting impression was the radical version of Shakespeare’s<br />
King Lear staged by Luc Perceval and Het Toneelhuis, and co-produced with BRUGGE<br />
2002, Schauspielhannover and Schauspielhaus Zürich. L. King of Pain left only the<br />
L. of Lear in place, to tell a story about irrevocable decline, power leading to tenebrosity<br />
and a body going to seed. A surprising aspect was the language that was spoken:<br />
a specially developed artificial language – not Dutch, not German, but nonetheless<br />
understandable through its expression.<br />
Equally elevating was the new production SS by Josse De Pauw and Tom Jansen, produced<br />
by Het Net. The production was based on the book De SS’ers (“The SS members”),<br />
written in the nineteen sixties, in which the artist Armando and the journalist<br />
Hans Sleutelaar interviewed eight anonymous<br />
Dutchmen who chose the side of the Germans in<br />
the Second World War. In the production a number<br />
of these monologues are staged in a combination<br />
of theatre, dance, choral singing and film.<br />
The public interest in this piece was so great that<br />
an extra performance was scheduled.<br />
© JAN TERMONT & DIRK VAN DER BORGHT<br />
Josse De Pauw is one of the artists who came to<br />
Bruges on the occasion of BRUGGE 2002 in order<br />
to do some creative work there. He became artistic<br />
director of Het Net and launched the series<br />
Sproken (Tales), special evenings hosted by him,<br />
Restoration work<br />
in which he invited young artists or artist friends<br />
to simply “do something” on the Het Net stage.<br />
In 2002, to mark its fifteenth anniversary, Needcompany made Images of Affection -<br />
affection rendered in images. This cool production symbolised the search for boundaries<br />
in presenting theatre and the business of dealing with the vulnerability of theatre<br />
and image language. We also found this ambition reflected in many other programmes.