With the first collective project in 2007 Toneelhuis underlined that connection: Een geschiedenis van de wereld in 10 1/2 hoofdstuk, based on Julian Barnes’ novel A History of the World in 10½ Chapters. This agile and entertaining show raised intriguing questions: how do you retain your balance in an unstable world? How do you keep the fleet afloat in these turbulent times? Is art a lifebuoy in this age of catastrophes? Or are we all the survivors of a shipwreck washed up on the coast of a still unknown future? Every inch of the Bourla was utilized for the show, with the audience moving to a different part of it for each chapter. A collective journey and a veritable experience.
The Toneelhuis formula didn’t change in 2010 but its makeup did: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lotte van den Berg and De Filmfabriek went off in search of pastures new and Bart Meuleman and Abke Haring joined Toneelhuis. Shortly after that reinforcements arrived in the form of FC Bergman and Mokhallad Rasem as theatre-makers, along with - and equally important – a small but tight-knit ensemble of actors. Again there was an overriding desire to mount a collective project, which in January 2012 resulted in Middenin de nacht (In the Middle of the Night) after Toon Tellegen’s novel of the same name. All the actors and makers together provided a festive, funny and at times endearing show about a variety of animals with suspiciously human emotions and desires.
In September 2014 Katelijne Damen, Tom Dewispelaere, Kevin Janssens, Johan Van Assche, Marc Van Eeghem, Abke Haring, Benjamin Verdonck, Olympique Dramatique, Guy Cassiers, Bart Meuleman, Mokhallad Rasem and FC Bergman will become The Blind in De blinden. Erwin Mortier has produced a very fine translation of Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck’s Les aveugles. We encounter a group of blind people in a forest awaiting the return of their guide. Where is the guide? Who is the guide? Is he still alive? Or are they all waiting for Godot? This cross between theatre and installation is a chance to see the entire ensemble of makers and players at work together.
A little later on in the season the theme of Les aveugles finds an echo in Het vertrek van de mier (The Departure of the Ant). In this show directed by Guy Cassiers and based on a story by Toon Tellegen, the large animal forest looms large and in it we meet very diverse individuals all looking for something they miss. Finally there is the production Passions humaines and at its centre Jef Lambeaux’s sculpture of the same name. Owing to censorship of various kinds, this powerful bass relief has never found its public. In the many-voiced second part of this show the sculpture itself speaks: a chorus voices the artwork’s search for its public, its identity and its raison d’être.
These three productions are three anchor points in the new 2014-2015 season, but there is plenty of space in-between for the many voices of all the other Toneelhuis-makers and the new creations they are busy preparing for you.
