Performance

Locus iste

Premiere - Friday
13:30 - 14:00
Friday, saturday and sunday
13:30 - 14:00
Friday, saturday and sunday
15:30 - 16:00
Friday, saturday and sunday
17:30 - 18:00
Friday, saturday and sunday
19:30 - 20:00

O quam metuendus est locus iste! Oh, how awe-inspiring is this place!

Benjamin Verdonck and Lucas Van Haesbroeck use their viewing boxes to create a new composition for the Joseph Ryelandtzaal, formerly the Theresian Convent’s church. The musical accompaniment is performed on the organ. Immerse yourself in an intriguing spectacle of light and shadow, shutters, rich tones and lots of strings. Let everything go: space and time, judgements and opinions, choices and assertions. Surrender to the experience and forget about the reality you think you know.

With the support of Concertgebouw Brugge

Theme

The location—a former church—forms a direct link to the Reie Festival’s theme of Faith. For Locus iste, the makers were not only inspired by this religious heritage site but also chose it for the actual performance. A sacred space that offers an escape, a retreat for people to seek their personal interpretation of faith, whether alone or with others.

More information

Benjamin Verdonck (°1972) is an all-round artist who does not want to be pigeon-holed: actor, writer, visual artist, theatre maker, and more, in a variety of genres and venues, from the stage to the public space, from art installations to miniature, mobile theatres. Verdonck tries to capture his ideas in an engagingly simple visual language. Preoccupied and concerned about what’s happening in the world, he combines the playfulness of a child with the heavy heart of a philosopher.

His work is an attempt to affect our consciousness with play and fantasy. He uses language as a material and makes the space and objects speak. Verdonck tries to make us aware, and even move us to take action, without actually offering ready-made solutions. In his search for new forms of “table theatre”, he created a series of table-sized mobile theatres. With very few words but lots of strings, colours, geometric figures, opening doors and closing curtains, he strips theatre back to its core. Close-up and on a human scale, his magical show boxes might pop up anywhere in town and disappear again just as suddenly. They reveal a poetry, in word and image, both mysterious and tangible.

Light designer and scenographer Lucas Van Haesbroeck (°1981, Antwerp) is intrigued by shadows, a fascination that began when he worked for Toneelhuis. Under the direction of Guy Cassiers, whose highly visual theatrical language makes him one of the leading European theatre makers, Van Haesbroeck had the opportunity to gain new experiences. As time went on, there were collaborations with Antwerp companies, and he became involved with numerous music and dance productions. Van Haesbroeck finds visual perception, its functioning, limitations and potentials, a stimulating and challenging subject for further exploration.