This year Theater aan Zee went for a tangible manifesto 'TOUCH ME. Love and Argue'. A manifesto that lets itself be written as a barometer for love and resistance, that touches the heart and sets the mind in motion.
The artistic duo Jozefien Mombaerts & Cindy Godefroi, an artistic Advisory Board and further theater maker and writer Fikry El Azzouzi and cognitive psychologist Louisa Bogaerts were responsible for the programming. There were fewer performances this year so you had to react super quickly. I missed the net for quite a few performances.
We can still consider ourselves fortunate in Belgium: no forest fires, no floods… but we are dealing with a shaky summer. Theater aan Zee is now past tense. Time to take stock. A successful edition despite the awful weather. #TAZ 23 will go down in the books as the wettest edition ever. Heavy downpours and wind galore. For the many open-air performances no blessing, but the die-hards were not intimidated by the weather gods.
Tuesday 1 Aug. 15u - old swimming pool 'OUTSIDER' Laika – Theater der zinnen
The first performance on our shortened list took place at an outdoor location. A desolate setting, the defunct swimming pool, behind art center Kaap and the famous arcades. In this monologue, written by Michael Bijnens at Laika's request, Frank Dierens embodies Ted Kaczynski, a brilliant mathematics professor, extremely intelligent, but also lonely and socially maladjusted. He is fed up with society and retreats to the wilderness in a primitive cabin without running water and electricity and in complete isolation. He rages, argues, provokes about man destroying nature, about the isolation he embraces through the alienation called technology, the endless screaming on social media.
In 1978 the first letter bomb departed from the cabin. Sixteen more attacks would follow with three deaths and twenty-three wounded. One of the most notorious and most wanted terrorists ever, better known as the Unabomber. For nearly twenty years the FBI hunted the brilliant terrorist. Ted Kaczynski was dragged from his primitive cabin as a wild and confused man. He died recently on June 10, 2023 in a secure prison in North Carolina (US), 81 years old. In 'Outsider' he delivers a passionate defense speech in preparation for his trial and tells from A to Z how his hermit existence lets his beautiful ideology shed into extremism.
As a set a wooden shack. A man lies relaxed on the roof and shouts all sorts of incoherent sounds. After a while he comes down and starts his speech. He tells from his own perspective in a stream of consciousness his disgust for society.
This beautifully written monologue does not quite live up to its full potential in the openness of the location. Despite the fluent delivery, the character did not touch me. The whole thing lacked intimacy. The narrative also shows weak points, causing attention to flag. Moreover, you are constantly distracted by people waving in the arcades. The stands set up with their backs to the arcades would have served the performance better. Somewhere towards the end the shack implodes with a proper bang.
Wednesday 2 Aug. 15u - De Grote Post première 'Gelukzoekers' Theater Malpertuis/Theater arsenaal
Happiness, yes what is happiness? Late Gerrit Komrij described it beautifully: "Happiness is a second that wants to be eternity." Numerous authors wrote hefty books about it like Leo Bormans' The World Book of Happiness.
The performers are Iraqi actor and director Mokhallad Rasem, formerly associated with The National Theater of Bagdad. He fled his country and has been living and working in Belgium since 2005. Together with actress Charlotte Vandermeersch they delved into what every human being strives for 'HAPPINESS'. The happiness factor in a human life is a very elusive matter. How do you reach that status? Through a combination of where your cradle stands, intelligence, motivation and chance?
The performance is a melange, a hotchpotch of ideas. It begins with a couple of ballads sung by Charlotte Vandermeersch. A beautiful alto, pleasant to listen to. Her companion encourages her to sing another song, and another, and another… So the clock ticks on... How did the two find each other? The character Evelyne gives lectures on happiness and one day the man, a fan, had burst into her box. They turn out to have common ground. All sorts of angles are played out. Evelyne has won prizes just like Vandermeersch. She has to show once more how she walks down the red carpet. A bit infantile. Her counterpart asks: "Show great pain". She makes a caricature of it: one leg back and an outstretched arm. In turn he must portray great pain. He doesn't flinch, doesn't make a single move. Asked why he doesn't react, he gets the answer: "Too much pain. I can't show it!" Digging deeper into that would have been interesting. You don't just flee your country. But that is not focused on.
Then the needless scene changes that stretch the narrative structure. With a few set pieces a boat is built, small triangular pieces of styrofoam are supposed to represent little waves. After a trip on the river of life and all manner of wisdom, everything is dismantled again.
Evelyn goes completely wild for a moment. Throwing paint at a wall appeals to her. Rasem asks her to do that sequence again. Why?
Then Evelyne delivers part of her lecture on happiness with mathematical simulations and percentages. The search for happiness becomes a ball in a pinball machine bouncing around uncontrollably. Final conclusion: 'Happiness seekers' much to do about nothing! Cold comfort. The audience did not go home any happier!
Wednesday 2 Aug. 21.50u
NEST Marie Gyselbrecht
This dance theatre production was nominated for 'Best outdoor performance' and 'Best national dance production' for the Catalunya Premis de la Critica. The fierce stormy wind and rain and also sitting on the ground was no longer for my old worn-out bones. A pity, I had been looking forward to it. Hopefully another opportunity will arise.
Thursday 3 Aug. 16u – Shipyard I.P.D. The Word Master, Bruno Vanden Broecke & Bo Spaenk
Bruno Vanden Broecke is a language virtuoso. The audience hung on his every word with 'Missie', 'Para' and 'Socrates', monologues with depth. 'The Word Master' is lighter on its feet in a whirl of language and music.
The setting is an old shipyard. You forget the surroundings. Master of the stage, he opens all the stops with infectious energy and takes the audience along on a hilarious story. At a dizzying pace, he reconstructes his wedding feast from 19 years ago. In a hilarious succession of family and friend character sketches in a torrent of words, slam poetry, caramel verses in a beautiful driving soundscape. The language and quotes sparkle. At his mother's grave he delivers the sharp one-liner: "From her we inherited norms and values, now only worms and earth remain!" Humour and tragedy are like Siamese twins stuck together. He works with dialects. No language idiom is foreign to him. Vanden Broecke is on edge, with a phenomenal sense of timing. He breaks off sentences. Picks them up again. Races like a high-speed train across the stage. Plays the scene from left to right, from front to back. He combines a vitalistic acting style with absolute mastery of diction. His delivery is perfect. You don't miss half a word, not even a letter. That too is exceptional! He unravels a tangle of emotions. Creates different characters. Of course you still need good people around you to lift the monologue to an even higher level and that is certainly the case with the class clowns and multi-instrumentalists Bo Spaenc, Pol Vanfleteren, Johan Vandendriessche and singer Amber Meert. There is a cross-fertilization. The balance between solo and ensemble is a team performance that takes the audience on a rollercoaster, a wild ride from beginning to end in a perfect balance between story, acting and music. A live event full of metaphors with room for humour, love of life and pleasure. Musically captured in unexpected chord changes and indefinable sounds. In a unique combination of jazz and other styles. A production with connection. Warm and authentic. 'The Word Master' is an absolute highflyer.
The cherry on the cake of our mini series of productions.
Chapeau once again to the hundreds of volunteers who every year, free and for nothing, put their shoulders to the wheel for their festival: 'Theater aan Zee'.