ImPulsTanz 2012: Troubleyn / Jan Fabre (BE)

Troubleyn / Jan Fabre (BE)
\"This is theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen\"

Date: Sat, Jul 21, 21:00 and Sun, Jul 22, 19:00
Venue: Hall G
Duration: approx. 480 min.

The title\'s tautological structure (it is as it was) is essentially a double negation. This production is not theatre, and certainly not as was foreseen. What could have been expected was fiction, a group of actors playing a role, who borrowed their lines from someone else, and who pretend to think of these lines on the spot.
Theatre as a lie, as a farce. Fabre\'s production is at odds with the normal genre divisions.

With the highly affirmative title, This is Theatre, Fabre succeeds in creating a universe that shakes theatre to its core, and which manages to skilfully and definitively tear down any potential definitions that might have still been standing, much like an earthquake. This is Theatre presents itself as an eight-hour work day, in which a set of characters repeat a number of actions and thus work up a sweat until they are exhausted and leave the shop floor once again:

they empty bags of sands, they lick yoghurt from the floor, they try to see who could dress or undress the fastest, cover themselves in shaving foam and wash it off again, etc.
Eighteen actions, which make up a Fabre theatre work day.

\"This is Theatre\" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It has its own preconceived grammar. Aesthetically, it ties in with assembly and installation. There are references to historically important visual artists, but, above all, several references to Jan Fabre\'s own universe, with his use of turtles, shaving foam, candles on swinging chairs, parrots and budgerigars, ingredients which Fabre uses in his performance art and visual work .
\"This is Theatre\" offers an introduction to what fascinates this author-director: his way of dealing with discipline, with the power of repetition and the repetition of power, with the asphyxiation and the revival of the individual, with the party of death amidst burgeoning life.


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