Dear Reader,

Europe has been badgered to exhaustion and its time is out of joint, to use Shakespeare’s words. Which once again proves that history repeats itself and that we learn nothing from it. That today is no different from yesterday.

Let the Indian summer begin. And if it gets too wet, or too hot, we’ll just take refuge in a theatre. I admit it: I’m addicted to theatre. It remains the most free and exciting medium in the world of the arts. During the month of August we have been allowed to work in the splendid Bourla theatre in Antwerp. More than three weeks on its large stage. What a luxury. What a challenge. For that matter, Guy Cassiers and his team deserve the first prize for commitment and hospitality. It’s an exceptional place, Toneelhuis. We are working on an interpretation of Stefan Hertmans’ book ‘War and Turpentine’, and our motto is ‘a book is a book and a play is a play’. During this working process I have again been confronted with my agnostic attitude towards the arts. Replacing God by art will always be a poor idea. But we’re stuck with it. The gusto with which Hertmans describes torture and gruesome horrors in his last two sublime novels is proof of the impotence of the seriousness of art. How can you evoke a war without being entertaining? What is imagination if God is dead? How do you play the part of a hero with a burning arsehole? I hear myself saying to the performers ‘knock the daylights out of each other for sixty minutes’. A brilliant stage direction. Is there enough ice in the freezer? The problem of entertainment is a pressing one. In this sense, the Dutroux production by Milo Rau and his little children, which I saw at the Theatre Festival, is repugnant. The use of sentimental music and humour out of a sense of uncertainty obliges the agnostic in me to give a tragic standing ovation. We’re still having a great time.

In the meantime we are also a curator at the major Malta Festival in Poznań in Poland. Europe at its worst. The Minister of Culture in the present far right government hates the idea that a foreign artist should meddle in their festival. So the choice made by the festival’s very courageous team under Michał Merczyński and Kasia Tórz has led to a 70 percent cut in their budget. Our task consisted of inviting about ten theatre productions from all over the world, also devising a film programme and an exhibition under the heading ‘Leap of Faith’, which is actually the definition of art. But the world’s vulgar new leaders don’t want this. The previous curator, the Croatian artist Oliver Frljić, had to flee Poland during the festival due to death threats, fights, far right demonstrations and other such things. Simply because he had made a play that was critical of the catholic faith. It is a lie that politicians in our neoliberal society do not have any power. We also vote for them too lightly. One man and a small team can horribly change the face of a country. The list of vulgar, democratically elected leaders is too long for me. The closing monologue by the sublime Lobke Lierens in Another one, a superb production also seen at the Theatre Festival, in which she asks the audience to take a step backwards and then to the left and then to the left again and then to the left once more and backwards a little and then left again, is thus a guideline for everyone who misses their gods, but doesn’t worry about it.

JL

War and Turpentine, Jan Lauwers’ adaptation of Stefan Hertmans’ universally acclaimed book on ‘the great war’, with Viviane De Muynck in the leading role, will premiere at Toneelhuis on 7 December 2017 and remains there until 17 December.

1095 by Kuiperskaai — the young theatre company accommodated at the MILL – will premiere at Love at First Sight, the festival for emerging theatre-makers. Their contrary view of the Middle Ages can be seen at the Monty Kultuurfaktorij on 13, 14 and 15 September 2017. This is followed by a tour of Belgium and the Netherlands: Theater Aan het Spui (The Hague), De Grote Post (Ostend), Theater Aan het Vrijthof (Maastricht), 30CC (Leuven), CC Belgica (Dendermonde), NTGent and Theaterfestival Boulevard ('s-Hertogenbosch).

In 2018, Maarten Seghers will be presenting a new performance called Concert by a Band Facing the Wrong Way. It will be a pulsing blend of music and theatre in collaboration with the Swiss drummer Nicolas Field and the Dutch guitarist Rombout Willems. In this production, Maarten will continue his quest for the border area between entertainment and tragedy. It is coproduced by L’Auditori (Barcelona) and on tour from spring 2018.

Grace Ellen Barkey is continuing to work on her Magnolia installation. She made an initial version for the Strombeek cultural centre and for the opening of the MILL in March. Making use of videos about flowers and a number of objects, she transforms a space into a curious world where the spectator gains an insight into the notion that people are mortal and nature is eternal.

IN THE MEANTIME AT THE MILL
Marjolein has had another baby and Veerle Vaes has joined the team to manage the distribution of our productions.

On Friday 22 September the doors at MILL will once again be swinging open for CINEMAXIMILIAAN @ MILL’S HOME CINEMA EVENING. Cinemaximiliaan (a pop-up cinema for and with newcomers) will show a selection of short films.

After the interval, the programme continues with Goldfish Game. This is a chance to see Jan Lauwers’ first full-length film once again. At the 2004 Slamdance Film Festival (USA) it won the ‘Grand Jury Honor for Best Ensemble Cast’.

In September, Jan Lauwers’ The blind poet opens the International Theatre Festival MESS in Zenica/Sarajevo. The same team will then be going to Paris for 2 weeks. The performance is on at La Colline from 11 to 22 October; spread the word.

The Fjaler theatre festival in Norway is hosting MaisonDahlBonnema and their one-big-song-performance The Moon, a Needcompany production, on 15 September.

FOREVER, Lemm&Barkey’s moving performance about taking leave and Mahler will be on at the Monty on 5 October and STUK on 7 and 8 November 2017.

And finally, Isabella’s room is back. Jan Lauwers’ classic piece, which has been travelling the world for 13 years, can be seen once again, in the French version by la De Muynck at Théatre National in Brussels on 9, 10 and 11 November. Tickets and hot cakes… you know. You have been warned.

The exhibition ‘The Raft. Art is (not) lonely', curated by Jan Fabre and Joanna De Vos, will be on in Ostend for six months as from 20 October 2017. One of the works they have selected is Glory Hole by OHNO COOPERATION.

To conclude, a short note on stars and stars:

Last Saturday a new star was installed in the Ostend Walk of Fame for Viviane De Muynck (alongside Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin and many others) and in addition she received an Outstanding Achievement Award for her entire career.

For her part, Romy Louis Lauwers has won the Sylvia Kristel Award for her role as Panda in the full-length film ‘Het leven is vurrukkulluk’. The prize will be awarded for the fourth time during the ‘Film by the Sea’ festival in Vlissingen on 16 September. According to the jury, Romy is an exceptional young talent who, like Sylvia Kristel, possesses a singular personality. ‘She is able to combine beauty with allure and intelligence and lightness of touch and, just like Sylvia, takes an unrestricted approach to her work.’

Congratulations to both of you!