De Pauw (Engels) - depot voor het VTi

josse de pauw
all human relationships. In so doing he comes up with such
explosive questions as ‘how far can two men go in their friendship
before it is called homosexuality? How often can you hurt
someone before they run away? How much damage can you do
without causing a final break? In fact they are subjects that De
Pauw and Jansen had already dealt with together.
In De Pauw’s career, productions like De meid slaan and Trots
vlees are important because they clearly show another side of this
play-maker as a poetic writer and storyteller. The pleasure of acting
with Tom Jansen, on the basis of recognisable, possibly autobiographical
facts, here has the edge over the plastic aspect of
storytelling as in the duo De Pauw and Van Kraaij, or the musical
interaction of the duo De Pauw and Vermeersch. His work
with Dominique Deruddere in film (Crazy Love (1987), Wait
Until Spring, Bandini (1989), Hombres Complicados (1997) and
Iedereen Beroemd (2000)) and with Hugo De Greef in the area
of structure and organisation, can be described as a sort of
‘league of two’. And what about his collaboration with Mandus
De Vos, who gave the young De Pauw his first lessons in recitation
and with whom he later appeared on several occasions at the
Mechels Miniatuur Theater (Francesco Furioso (1973) and De
bende van Jan de Lichte (1974))?
In each case De Pauw commences his collaboration with the
same energy, adapting himself entirely to the discipline and
friendship of each successive partner. In addition, De Pauw leaves
traces of his own evolution as a play-maker in the career of each
of these partnerships. His collaboration with Peter Van Kraaij,
for instance, grew from a monologue, through a narration for
several voices, and a film with dialogue (Vinaya) to a proper
existing play (Exiles), with all that entails. It was with Tom
Jansen that he introduced a considerable number of direct dialogues
for the first time, and then included an existing one-act
play in their next production together.
Larf: a ‘concert dramatique’
After Weg, which was discussed at the start of this book (see pp.
10-12), De Pauw went to Ghent to make Larf at Victoria. The
artistic director, Dirk Pauwels, asked him to make a piece that
40 / Kritisch Theater Lexicon - 14 e - August 2001
artistic development: de pauw’s way and weg
would fit into the Time Festival 2000’s theme of ‘Mad Kings’.
What is more, with the Vooruit Geluid music event, Brussels 2000
and the Festival of Flanders as extra production partners, there
were sufficient financial resources to make a large-scale production
of it.
Since Usurpation in 1985, it had always been De Pauw’s dream
to combine words and music on stage. This was realised in a
highly ingenious way in Weg. At that point his collaboration
with the composer Peter Vermeersch reached a peak. But De
Pauw wanted to take it one step further. As he said a few days
before the opening night, ‘I saw Weg much more as a story with
a thread, whereas Larf is much further away from a clear storyline.
It is a sort of evocation, more associative. This was a deliberate
choice: I wanted to break up the writing even more, there
is much more music in it. … Music is in itself highly abstract. I
feel that the more you go in that direction in language, the closer
you get to music.’ 19
In the end Vermeersch brought his sixteen-man big band The
Flat Earth Society with him, and the blues legend Roland Van
Campenhout also took part, so that the three actors, De Pauw
and his artistic brothers-in-arms Tom Jansen and Dirk
Roofthooft, were physically clearly in the minority.
The performance starts in complete silence. The sculptor and
painter Koenraad Tinel crosses the stage with a bucket and a
huge paintbrush. With great energy he starts to paint on a sheet
of white fibreglass lying on the floor. While he creates a crude
image of a larva, other sounds gradually become perceptible: the
clatter of musical instruments, a voice, a few notes. Tinel’s movements
are also amplified by way of a microphone. When his work
is finished, the cloth is flown so that it hangs as a backcloth. The
actors and musicians then enter. They put everything together on
the spot. The platform, chairs, instruments and instruments and
a few bits of set are brought on quietly and efficiently.
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we are telling the story of Baby
becomes King. We are calling the baby Larva, because in the
beginning that is what it looked like most. Larva himself did not
know he would be born, so he is beyond reproach, but on the
other hand little Larva was ramapolo toolinparky esterantic
mavoose. Malasikapoo and flimbikly bararst…’
41 / Kritisch Theater Lexicon - 14 e - August 2001