Ongoing Thought

With the musical director Steven Prengels and the actor Wim Opbrouck. Mediation Fernando Villar (UNB).
March 15th, from 10am to 11am | Venue: Itaú Cultural

Crossing Dialogues

With Tom Zé
March 15th after the performance | Venue: Municipal Theatre of São Paulo

Essays Space

Check out the text by Fernando Villar about the show “En avant, marche!” (only in Portuguese)

Synopsis

Directors Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke and the composer Steven Prengels worked together in this production, putting on stage four actors and seven musicians. Here, at MITsp, they are accompanied by Brazilian musicians under the regency of conductor Carlos Eduardo Moreno, who was once conductor of the Experimental Music Orchestra of São Paulo and of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo. The directors found inspiration in the world of brass bands and harmonies. There is a place for all different kinds of people in this world where rules and traditions are passed from generation to generation. It is a small world held together by music. En avant, marche! is about the need and longing to be carried by a group, sometimes, just for a minute. The show also dialogues with Pirandello’s The Man with the Flower in his Mouth, 1922, in the figure of a trombonist who, because of his illness, needs to say goodbye to his musical instrument and retire to the last ranks of the band. A man who is part of a group, but who, as a result of his illness, is thrown into the greatest solitude imaginable: the confrontation with his own mortality.

History

Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke had worked with Steven Prengels on the creation of Gardenia in 2010, a show in which a cabaret of transvestites is shut down, revealing the private life of a group of senior artists. After their exhibition in 2012 at the Huis van Alijn Museum in Ghent, which became a photography book, the trio decided to work with bands and fanfare traditions that are part of the cultural and social life of cities around the world. En Avant, Marche! (2015) is signed by NTGent, Ghent’s city theatre, based on Sint-Baafsplein, between the cathedral, belfry and town hall in the center of the city, and the company les ballets C de la B, founded by Alain Platel in 1984, also in Ghent, which has become a creative space for many choreographers, allowing artists from different areas to participate in their creative process. Alain Platel is a self-taught director having signed dozens of productions inside and outside the company les ballets C de la B. Frank Van Laecke has made an international career as a writer and author. He has directed plays, operas and television programs. Steven Prengels, Master in Composition, has a comprehensive work which includes music for great orchestras, theater, dance, film and visual arts.

Credits

Directors: Frank Van Laecke and Alain Platel
Composition and musical direction: Steven Prengels
Created and performed by: Chris Thys, Griet Debacker, Hendrik Lebon, Wim Opbrouck, Gregory Van Seghbroeck (bastuba), Jan D’Haene (trumpet), Jonas Van Hoeydonck (trumpet), Lies Vandeburie (bugle), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium), Simon Hueting (horn), Witse Lemmens (drums), Steven Prengels (conductor) and a local musical group
Dramaturgy: Koen Haagdorens
Light design: Carlo Bourguignon
Sound design: Bartold Uyttersprot
Set design: Luc Goedertier
Costume design: Marie ‘Costume’ Lauwers
Stage manager: Wim Van de Cappelle
Production manager: Valerie Desmet
Tour manager: Steve De Schepper
Production: NTGent and les ballets C de la B
Coproduction: La Rose Des Vents (Villeneuve d’Ascq, FR), TorinoDanza (IT), Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris, FR), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (LU), Festspielhaus St. Pölten (AU), Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele (DE), Festival Printemps des Comédiens Montpellier (FR), Croation National Theatre Zagreb (HR), Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg-scène européenne (FR), GREC-Festival de Barcelona (ES), KVS Brussel (BE), Brisbane Festival (AUS), Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne(CH)
Distribution: Frans Brood Productions
With the support of: City of Ghent, Province East Flanders, the Flemish authorities