Five Easy Pieces

Milo Rau / IIPM & CAMPO

Night in a Belgian living room. A couple of parents are waiting for news of their child who has been missing for weeks. Meanwhile the audience knows that their daughter, like many others, has become a victim of the Belgian child abuser and murderer Marc Dutroux, the man who was revealed in the mid-Nineties to have kidnapped, sexually abused and killed children over a period of many years. And who remained undiscovered for a bafflingly long time.
Milo Rau, whose numerous productions have made him one of the most talked-about directors and provocateurs on the political theater scene, has all the parts played by children aged between 8 and 13 from the CAMPO Theater, Ghent. In doing so he inverts hierarchies. The potential victims actively lay claim to the widest range of roles in this drama. Yet at the same time Rau makes no secret of the fact that this reversal is not so easy to achieve. His stage is anything other than a non-hierarchical space: the one remaining adult gives directions and switches between director, casting director, Dutroux and a father figure, both friendly and creepy at the same time. In ‘Five Easy Pieces’ – five simple experiments with nothing easy about them – the spotlight is on those who usually remain in the background of the news reports.
Milo Rau, who was invited to Impulse in 2015 with ‘Civil Wars’, believes in the power of enlightenment. His plays are always plays of disclosure, exposing the power structures behind individual stories. We cannot close our eyes. But what should children know, do and say? What is our role as a witness and observer? And what do we learn about our own fears, hopes and taboos?

Artist Talk following the performance on 30 June

ON

FRIDAY 30 JUNE 7:30 PM Cologne
Language flemish (dt. supertitles / engl. surtitles) Schauspiel Köln / Depot 1
sold out
SATURDAY 1 JULY 7:30 PM Köln
Language flemish (dt. supertitles / engl. surtitles) Schauspiel Köln / Depot 1
Tickets here


Duration 90’

Concept, Director, Text Milo Rau
Performance, Text Rachel Dedain, Maurice Leerman, Pepijn Loobuyck, Willem Loobuyck, Polly Persyn, Peter Seynaeve, Elle Liza Tayou, Winne Vanacker
Performance Video Sara De Bosschere, Pieter-Jan De Wyngaert, Johan Leysen, Peter Seynaeve, Jan Steen, Ans Van den Eede, Hendrik Van Doorn, Annabelle Van Nieuwenhuyse
Dramaturgy Stefan Bläske
Assistant Director, Performance Coach Peter Seynaeve
Research Mirjam Knapp, Dries Douibi
Stage Design, Costume Anton Lukas
Video, Sound Sam Verhaert
Production Assistant, Childcare Ted Oonk
Music coach Herlinde Ghekiere
Voice coach Françoise Vanhecke, Jakob Ampe
Translation (french): Isabelle Grynberg
Realisation Stage Ian Kesteleyn
Technicians Bart Huybrechts, Korneel Coessens, Piet Depoortere
Second Camera Alexander Van Waes
Videosound Henk Rabau
Production Management Wim Clapdorp, Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Eva-Karen Tittmann
Tourmanagement Leen De Broe
Marketing Marijke Vandersmissen

A production of CAMPO & IIPM in coproduction with Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels 2016, Münchner Kammerspiele, La Bâtie – Festival de Genève, Kaserne Basel, Gessnerallee Zürich, Singapore International Festival of Arts, SICK! Festival UK, Sophiensaele Berlin, Le phénix scène nationale Valenciennes pôle européen de création. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe Berlin, Pro Helvetia, GGG Basel, Fachausschuss Tanz and Theater BS/BL (Basel). With support by the Flemish Government of the province East Flanders and the City of Ghent.

Foto © Phile Deprez

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