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Theatre

Matisklo

Toneelhuis, Bosse Provoost

In Matisklo, Bosse Provoost and five other theatre makers search for the limits of what can be expressed in words and images on the basis of poems by Paul Celan, with costumes that swallow a person up and heaps of inspired material.

As a survivor of the Holocaust, Celan goes to moral and linguistic extremes. His poetry reaches for that which is ‘beyond’ language: a world long before or long past mankind, speaking from beyond his own death… Every word is like a stone that can be picked up and examined from multiple directions. Benjamin Cools and Joeri Happel take a shot at it.

Several ambiguous and inward-looking ‘inclemencies’ also come into play. What extensions of meaning and imagination arise when these inclemencies converge with Celan’s poems?

Doesn’t the dark of the sky testify to distant starlight that can never reach this world? Matisklo is an invitation to gaze at ‘black stars’.

THREADSUNS
above the grayblack wastes

A tree-
high thought

grasps the light-tone: there are
still songs to sing beyond
mankind.


(P. Celan, Breathturn)

Now that even the president of the United States is helping to make racism and anti-Semitism socially acceptable again, a group of young Flemish theatre makers are throwing a fresh theatrical spotlight on the language of an almost forgotten Holocaust poet.

"In these images – and there are more of them – Matisklo opens up, revealing a world that is bigger than the images themselves, in which the unspeakable becomes palpable."

Evelyne Coussens in Etcetera , 23 November 2018

director

  • Bosse Provoost

concept

  • Bosse Provoost

performance

  • Joeri Happel
  • Benjamin Cools
  • Ezra Veldhuis
  • Geert Belpaeme

dramaturgy

  • Geert Belpaeme

sound design

  • Benjamin Cools

costume design

  • Max Pairon

set and light design

  • Ezra Veldhuis

text

  • Paul Celan

translation

  • Ton Naaijkens

production

  • Toneelhuis
  • P.U.L.S. - Project for Upcoming Artists for the Large Stage
  • Kraagsteen

coproduction

  • kunstencentrum Vooruit
  • Jonge Harten Theaterfestival

with the support of

  • wp Zimmer
  • De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
  • Tax Shelter maatregel v/d Belgische Federale Overheid
  • Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter powered by Belfius

All data

There are no upcoming activities for this event.

  1. Thursday 15 November 2018 — 20h00 — Bourlaschouwburg, Antwerpen
  2. Friday 16 November 2018 — 20h00 — Bourlaschouwburg, Antwerpen
  3. Friday 23 November 2018 — Jonge Harten, Groningen
  4. Wednesday 12 December 2018 — Theater Kikker, Utrecht
  5. Sunday 24 February 2019 — 20h00 — Bourlaschouwburg, Antwerpen
  6. Thursday 28 March 2019 — VIERNULVIER/Domzaal, Gent
  7. Friday 29 March 2019 — VIERNULVIER/Domzaal, Gent
  8. Tuesday 15 October 2019 — Théâtre de la Bastille, Parijs
  9. Wednesday 16 October 2019 — Théâtre de la Bastille, Parijs
  10. Thursday 17 October 2019 — Théâtre de la Bastille, Parijs
  11. Friday 18 October 2019 — Théâtre de la Bastille, Parijs
  12. Cancelled: Saturday 4 April 2020 — 20h30 — De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam

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