The Valley

A man is standing in the middle of a small arena. He tells us his incredible life-story. He is surrounded by musicians who underpin, colour and comment on his tragic narrative. Amongst them is a mysterious woman. Is she a guardian angel, his conscience, his supposedly lost daughter? The soprano Claron McFadden (in alternation with Lore Binon) and actor Dirk Roofthooft are flanked by the BL!NDMAN saxophone quartet in this partly narrated, partly sung story that is musically inspired by the 15th-century Missa Gaudeamus by Josquin des Prez. For this production, the artist Hans Op de Beeck and composer Eric Sleichim are collaborating for the first time. The valley (an apocalypse) deals with the daily banality of violence and how grand cataclysmic events are played out on the most intimate and personal level.