Jan Lauwers & Needcompany

The Flemish director and artist Jan Lauwers is one of the major innovators of European theatre. His productions for the Needcompany have been shown at leading venues and festivals worldwide such as the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Salzburg Festival or the Ruhrtriennale festival. Lauwers background as a visual artist has been decisive in his handling of the medium of theatre and has led to a highly individual and in many ways pioneering theatrical idiom.

Similar to the works of visionary German choreographer Pina Bausch which have had an unprecedented influence on so many notable dance and performance artists, Lauwers’ powerfully narrative and visual productions interweave theatre with dance, music, song and the visual arts and speak to us through multiple narratives. PACT Zollverein enjoys a long-standing collaborative relationship with the Needcompany and regularly presents their productions. Within the frame work of the Tanztheater Wuppertal jubilee season PINA40, the world renowned Brussels based company now returns to the NRW region with one of their most outstanding productions. In a room in Paris surrounded by hundreds of bizarre exotic anthropological objects plundered from Ancient Egypt and black Africa, the old and blind Isabella, played by the superlative Belgian actress Viviane De Muynck, looks back over her life. Together with all those who were important to her, she tells of her life, of her foster parents who met a tragic death, of her insatiable yearning for Africa and a mysterious desert prince whose image she cherishes. But it soon becomes clear that ›Isabella’s Room‹ contains a secret, a terrible unutterable lie that dominates her existence.

Concept, direction: Jan Lauwers

Script: Jan Lauwers; ›The Liar’s Monologue‹ Anneke Bonnema

Music: Hans Petter Dahl, Maarten Seghers

Lyrics: Jan Lauwers, Anneke Bonnema

Dance: Julien Faure, Ludde Hagberg, Tijen Lawton, Louise Peterhoff

Isabella – Viviane De Muynck; Anna – Anneke Bonnema; Arthur – Benoit Gob; Alexander – Hans Petter Dahl; Frank – Maarten Seghers; The Desert Prince – Julien Faure; Sister Joy – Yumeko Funaya (replacing Louise Peterhoff); Sister Bad – Sung-Im Her (replacing Tijen Lawton); Narrator – Misha Downey (replacing Ludde Hagberg)

Costumes: Lemm&Barkey

Set: Jan Lauwers

Lighting: Jan Lauwers, Marjolein Demey

Sound design: Dré Schneider

Production management: Chris Vanneste

Technical director: Marjolein Demey

German surtitles: Petra Serwe

Production: Needcompany

Co-production: Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), La Rose des Vents (Scène Nationale de Villeneuve d'Ascq), Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York), welt in basel theaterfestival

In collaboration with: Kaaitheater (Brussels)

Supported by the Flemish Authorities