De Pauw (Engels) - depot voor het VTi

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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
It is with this short prologue that Tom Jansen introduces the spoken word into the performance. The start of the story of Larfken is already upset after several sentences and lapses into an abstract baby-talk, the sort of nonsense adults are in the habit of coming out with over the baby’s cot. The atmosphere is immediately established: Little Larva, Larva wee Is a butterfly what you will be? Yesssssssssssssssssssss! Little Larva, Larva son And do you know the way it’s done? Nooooooooooooooooooo! Larva, Larva, little nit Scratch your skin all to bits! Oooooooooooooooooooo! josse de pauw ‘And then the music pierces to the bone,’ is the following stage direction, and that is exactly what happens. While the actors describe how the royal baby came into the world, the sounds of woodwind and brass, percussion, electric guitar, vibraphone, keyboards, bass and a female voice resound through the fairytale narration. Lyrical phrases, melancholy reflections on the birth and the constantly repeated ‘rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye’ set the tone. The birth and the first signs of life are cloyingly described. The child grows up perfectly and is loved by everyone until it learns to speak. ‘I’, is its first word. And the second and third: ‘I. I. II. IIIIIIII…’ Dirk Roofthooft goes on endlessly bellowing the word. Gradually other words appear and the first sentences take shape: ‘I am the world. I want. Give me what is mine.’ The eagerly expected child turns out to be a pain in the neck, obsessed with such a hunger for power that nothing less than the royal throne is good enough for him. Whereas during the beginning section of the play the three actors simply sat on chairs amongst the musicians, as speaking voices in the orchestra, from the moment Larf ascends the throne 42 / Kritisch Theater Lexicon - 14 e - August 2001 artistic development: de pauw’s way and weg they separate themselves from the group. They put on wrought iron adornments by Tinel and each climbs one of the huge thrones high above the big band. Once there they start to speak: on the importance of the threat of an enemy for the smooth functioning of the state, on the guilt of the corrupt woman, on what lives and what does not, on the creation of flowery meadows and on the genesis of mankind. The theory of natural selection which they support leads to the burning of a monkey figure while the kings laugh and shout (‘Ape face! Ugly mug! Get back up your tree!). From this point on the political undertone in the play becomes paramount. It is not only that power as a universal fact becomes the point of the play, but its practical consequences are also examined. In a rhetorically sophisticated speech the kings address the people: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, my dear people, Jean, Jeanine and Sigiswald, chers compatriotes, mesdames, messieurs. Things are going well. Very well. We have little or no reason to complain.’ This is followed by a description of just how good things are, how fine life can be and how cleverly we are able to protect ourselves from all manner of calamity. The state is an oasis of good fortune and no burglar, war or storm can harm it. The public, which is initially invited to join in this contemplation of all the nice things they are able to experience everyday, are little by little also given more unpleasant morsels to digest. The rulers refer increasingly often to the misery outside, the villains and goodfor-nothings who do not know how to organise their own lives. And then comes the dénouement: We have ever been an hospitable and helpful people. But if they loom up out of the desert in their hordes to settle here in our oasis, if they cross the great waters in their rickety ships to pitch their tents here on our shores, if, like Icarus, they start to sew on wings and flap them wildly about, to fly up towards our sun… Then we should not stand silently looking on! … It is not our fault that others appear incapable of shaking off the ape! Then, when all three of them reel off ‘The Lion of Flanders’ word by word, no doubt is left about De Pauw’s intentions. Certainly 43 / Kritisch Theater Lexicon - 14 e - August 2001
Page 1 and 2: JOSSE DE PAUW BY JEF AERTS AND ANNE
Page 3 and 4: josse de pauw by the past is involv
Page 5 and 6: ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT: DE PAUW’S W
Page 7 and 8: josse de pauw Internationale Nieuwe
Page 9 and 10: josse de pauw (whereby the build-up
Page 11 and 12: josse de pauw the two protagonists
Page 13 and 14: josse de pauw I walk, hobble, stagg
Page 15 and 16: josse de pauw Smith). With a minimu
Page 17 and 18: [2] Ik wist niet dat Engeland zo mo
Page 19: josse de pauw did not get bogged do
Page 23 and 24: STRUCTURAL AND ARTISTIC CONTEXT Wit
Page 25 and 26: josse de pauw The wanderer in the l
Page 27 and 28: josse de pauw De Pauw to follow the
Page 29 and 30: WORK / THEATRE HISTORY Theatre The
Page 31 and 32: josse de pauw 1985 De wisselwachter
Page 33 and 34: josse de pauw Van Kerkhoven, Marian

De Pauw (Engels) - depot voor het VTi

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