Men in tribulation
For one hour, the duration of the performance, we travel into the mind of Antonin Artaud, poet, theatre maker, thinker and visionary.
One hour, the last hour of an exhausted spirit in a battle-weary body. In this last hour, the voices in his head won’t keep silent. They shout, whisper and sing the pain of a spirit that suffers and desires. Again and again, they call up snatches of a life: the theatre maker’s fight, his unwilling body, his drug dependence, his pride, the hostility of the world, the fear for misunderstanding, the desire for higher things. Again years of restraint in psychiatric institutes. The electroshock therapies. Again the trip to Mexico, the meeting with the Taruhumaras, an indian tribe in the inhospitable mountain massif, who find the divine in themselves during a secret ritual. The hope to find deliverance and inner peace, far away from the western civilisation, with these indians who find salvation inside themselves.
One hour, the last hour, in the mind of an exhausted man with a battle-weary body: the desperate scream of a dying spirit, his voices that never stop searching, his demons and his ultimate desire for purity.
Bart Van den Eynde
Eric Sleichim: direction, music and electronics
Jan Fabre: original text
B-architects: scenography
Bart Van Den Eynde: dramaturgy
Chris Snik: costumes
Phil Minton: Artaud 1
Hagen Matzeit: Artaud 2
Viviane De Muynck: seven voices of Artaud high priest
BL!NDMAN [SAX] the choir
Koen Maas: soprano saxophone
Piet Rebel: tenor saxophone
Raf Minten: baritone saxophone
Veerle Vaes: production management BL!NDMAN
Veerle Francke: production management Transparant
Roel Ghesquière: technical coordination
Jo Thielemans: sound technique
MEN IN TRIBULATION is a BL!NDMAN production, in co-production with Muziektheater Transparant, with the support of Kaaitheater. With thanks to Raymonde Carasco, Régis Hebraud.
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Press
“Jan Fabre wrote a very powerful text to express his personal, poetic interpretation of Artaud‘s ideas. Eric Sleichim created impressive layers of sound, efficiently supporting the content of the text.”
Maarten Beirens, De Standaard
“A powerful music- and theatre experience”
Stephan Moens, De Morgen