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About the body and the mind and how impossible it is for them to be
in tune with one another.
Except perhaps during a little dance.
| Josse de Pauw |
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Do a little dance.
A man does a little dance.
Body pressed against a dream-body.
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A man doesn’t dance anymore or far too rarely.
Vain attempts to become a monk.
The great yearning is for silence and aloneness.
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And then from nowhere the fancy for a little dance comes upon him.
Curious whether the pleasure of living is still part of it.
The old monk does a little dance. And then another. And another.
A joint venture by Kris Defoort and Josse De Pauw was an old idea.
Their work schedules had never previously allowed it, but then we
had it: An Old Monk.
Josse De Pauw performs a piece he wrote himself, with music by
Kris Defoort inspired by Thelonius Monk. About wanting to live at
all costs.
AN OLDMONK
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CREDITS
Text Josse De Pauw
Composer Kris Defoort
Inspired by Thelonious Monk
With Josse De Pauw & Kris Defoort Trio:
Kris Defoort piano,
Nicolas Thys electric bass,
Lander Gyselinck drums
Images Bache Jespers & Benoît van Innis
Production LOD muziektheater
Coproduction Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
AN OLDMONK
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8 november 2012 KC De Werf Bruges BE
5-7 august 2013 Theater Aan Zee Ostend BE
29-30 august 2013 Theaterfestival Brussels BE
25 september 2013 CC Mechelen Mechlin BE
26 september 2013 CC Sint-Niklaas Sint-Niklaas BE
29 september 2013 De Breughel Bree BE
1-2 october 2013 Toneelhuis Antwerp BE
3-4 october 2013 Théâtre National Brussels BE
6-7 october 2013 KVS Brussels BE
15 october 2013 CC Berchem Berchem BE
16-17 october 2013 NTGent Ghent BE
18 october 2013 CC De Stroming Evergem BE
19 october 2013 CC Gasthuis Aarschot BE
22 october 2013 De Grote Post Ostend BE
24-25 october 2013 de Brakke Grond Amsterdam NL
29 october 2013 Chassé Theater Breda NL
30 october 2013 Toneelschuur Haarlem NL
31 october 2013 CC Strombeek-Bever Strombeek BE
1 november 2013 CC De Steenoven Herzele BE
2 november 2013 CC Casino Koksijde BE
5 november 2013 CC Maasmechelen Maasmechelen BE
6 november 2013 Theater aan het Vrijthof Maestricht NL
7 november 2013 CC Muze Heusden-Zolder BE
8 november 2013 CC Gildhof Tielt BE
9 november 2013 De Velinx Tongeren BE
12 november 2013 Festival D’Jazz Nevers FR
21 january 2014 Le Parvis Tarbes FR
31 january 2014 Le Phenix Valenciennes FR
4 february 2014 Domaine d’O Montpelier FR
6-7 february 2014 Théâtre de la Renaissance Lyon FR
9 february 2014 De Kortrijkse Schouwburg Courtrai BE
11 february 2014 GC De Kluize Oosterzele BE
13-15 february 2014 Le Maillon Strasbourg FR
TOUR 2013-2014
AN OLDMONK
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16 july 2014 Tinel Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon Festival d’Avignon
17 july 2014 Tinel Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon Festival d’Avignon
18 july 2014 Tinel Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon Festival d’Avignon
19 july 2014 Tinel Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon Festival d’Avignon
20 july 2014 Tinel Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon Festival d’Avignon
21 july 2014 Tinel Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon Festival d’Avignon
6 september 2014 Hopduvelfeesten Asse
24 october 2014 De Warande Turnhout
25 october 2014 CC de Ploter Ternat
30 october 2014 Festival de Otono en Primavera Madrid
31 october 2014 Festival de Otono en Primavera Madrid
1 november 2014 Festival de Otono en Primavera Madrid
7 november 2014 Le Manège Maubeuge
8 november 2014 Palais des Beaux-Arts Charleroi
14 november 2014 Théâtre 71 Malakoff
15 november 2014 Théâtre 71 Malakoff
25 november 2014 Théâtre d’Orléans Orléans
26 november 2014 Théâtre d’Orléans Orléans
3 december 2014 La Filature Mulhouse
4 december 2014 La Filature Mulhouse
5 december 2014 La Nef Saint Dié
6 december 2014 La Nef Saint Dié
10 december 2014 ‘t Getouw Mol
11 december 2014 Ter Vesten Beveren
13 december 2014 Maison de la Culture Tournai
TOUR 2014
AN OLDMONK
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TOUR 2015-2016
AN OLDMONK
18 september 2015 Handelsbeurs Ghent
19 september 2015 De Werf Bruges
28 september 2015 Divadelna Nitra Nitra
29 september 2015 Divadelna Nitra Nitra
03 october 2015 Sirenos Festival Vilnius
04 october 2015 Sirenos Festival Vilnius
06 october 2015 Forum TEART Minsk
07 october 2015 Forum TEART Minsk
13 october 2015 Maison de la Culture Leopoldsburg
14 october 2015 Maison de la Culture Leopoldsburg
15 october 2015 Maison de la Culture Leopoldsburg
20 october 2015 CC Begijnhof Diest
23 october 2015 CC De Herbakker Eeklo
08 november 2015 Festival Temporada Alta Gerona
14 november 2015 Théâtre Durance Château-Arnoux
18 november 2015 Theater Chur Chur
19 november 2015 Kurtheater Baden Baden
22 november 2015 Théâtre Jean Vilar Vitry sur Seine
24 november 2015 Théâtre Hexagone Meylan
26 november 2015 Théâtre la Minoterie Marseille
27 november 2015 Théâtre la Minoterie Marseille
28 november 2015 Théâtre la Minoterie Marseille
30 january 2016 Klara in deSingel 2016 - deSingel Antwerp
8-12 march 2016 Festival Mostra Internacional de Teatro São Paulo, Brazil
10 may 2016 Forum Meyrin Geneva
17 may 2016 l’Espal Le Mans
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The old Monk is dancing. While his band really gets into the groove, he leaves the piano to its own devices, stretches his stiff limbs and does a dance. Dances with no other aim than dan-cing itself, both cheerful and solitary. In An Old Monk, Josse De Pauw and the Kris Defoort Trio get into dance. It turned into a suite, a long ode to the desire to ‘raise the old bones higher than expected’ and to try doing a dance once again.
An old man who ventures to dance once again. Is this production an act of resistance to ageing?Josse De Pauw: ‘Ageing is unavoidable, you can only accept it, but the resistance is what makes it fun. I wanted to do something about getting older, about the body wearing out, but also about the desire to keep on dancing or to start dancing again. The performance covers three stages: youth, adulthood and old age. When you are young you dance. At that stage, dancing means being on the prowl, looking for the right body. The perfect body, the one that fits you like a glove. Then comes a time when you don’t dance anymore. Well, that’s what I see in a lot of men. A period dominated by the feeling that all sorts of things are expected of you, and that you are imprisoned in the shackles of adulthood. That’s when life becomes dull. Until, finally, the moment comes when you say ‘that’s it’, and start feeling like dancing again. Not from any childlike sense, but because you fancy it. You just feel like a dance. And then the dance stands for more than just the dance itself. It represents the plea-sure of living, the resistance to conformism, living outside and beyond the norm.’
What is it about Thelonius Monk that appeals to you both?Kris Defoort: ‘The production isn’t about Thelonius Monk’s life, but we do use his music as a guide. Before we arrived at Monk, we experimented with free improvisation, compositions of my own. But Monk’s music was just right. The timing was perfect. Monk also has an emo-tional density and layering that linked in with what we were looking for. He is melancholic but never melodramatic. His tone, the way he strikes a note on the piano, contains both sadness and self-mockery.’
Josse De Pauw: ‘Monk is never unambiguous. He is both sombre and joyful. Sad and humo-rous. A little like life itself. All these layers should find their way into the performance too. We are aiming for authentic jazz. The dialogue with the music is organic. With few fixed arrangements. It’s the first time I’ve handled words and music so freely. In the first place that’s because I feel very good about this trio’s loose ensemble playing. When we listen to each other very closely, everything falls into place. The main path has been marked out. But we still have to see how we get from the beginning to the end. Again, it’s just like life itself!’
The title of the piece alludes not only to Monk, but also to the desire for stillness. Does age make that desire to be alone more acute?Josse De Pauw: ‘There are quite a few people who at a certain moment would like to spend some time in a monastery. An Old Monk is also about those usually futile attempts to be-come a monk. But that doesn’t necessarily exclude dancing. As I say in the performance, ‘the old monk raises his bones higher than expected and turns a pirouette.’
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“OLD MEN DANCING” - JOSSE DE PAUW AND KRIS DEFOORT ON AN OLD MONK.
AN OLDMONK
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Kris Defoort: ‘Of course, there was something monastic about Monk too. He too lived in his own world. Stuck in his own solitude.’
Josse De Pauw: ‘But doesn’t that apply to all of us? Nowadays we would probably call Monk autistic, someone with borderline personality disorder. We have labels for it now. I’m cer-tain that everyone has periods in their lives when they are autistic, or paranoid, or schi-zophrenic. It’s a state of living, a stage when the brain no longer meshes with the body. You could even call being in love a disorder. In the performance, the young dancing body – in love – displays the same symptoms as the diabetes with which the character is diagnosed at a later stage.’
Does it help to be older yourself if you want to make a production like this?Josse De Pauw: ‘I feel what I feel, it’s not without reason that I’m doing this piece now.’
A hundred-odd of Benoît’s drawings are being projected in parallel with the performance.Josse De Pauw: ‘I gave Benoît a pile of photos of myself taken by Bache Jespers. He then did drawings of them to create a visual suite. He knows me very well. I laughingly asked him to draw my life and he got it just right. They make a fine résumé of the performance. Lightness and gloom are intermingled in Benoît’s work too. He has often made me laugh, but he nevertheless lashes out at life’s issues as well. Gravity isn’t the opposite of lightness. And lightness isn’t necessarily superficial. I have always found such notions as optimism and pessimism rather hysterical. They don’t really tell me anything. You have to take life seriously, take a proper look at it, and at a certain moment put it into words. Good and evil, left and right, optimistic or pessimistic. I find them pointless categories. Life is infinitely more complex than that. And much more fascinating too. And, because of its complexity, also lighter. Nothing is ever unequivocal. And that takes us back to Monk’s fullness.’
Kris, when playing with your new trio, you sometimes depart from the rhythm, but still stay solidly rooted in the groove. Kris Defoort: ‘I increasingly aim to give each individual in the trio the greatest possible freedom. Lander and Nic reinvent that groove on the spot, every time they play. And what is more, it’s a groove that’s not really together. Sometimes it’s as if we were playing com-pletely separately from each other, but after a diversion we still meet up again. We try to combine various moods: danceable, groovy, soulful, meditative. I can sometimes come up with something quite lyrical and melancholy, but it’s always parried by Lander and Nic. We also approach Monk with the same freedom. Very little of it is fixed: we have a bag full of Monk tunes we can draw on. Sometimes we play four of his themes one on top of the other. It’s a rediscovery for me too, even though it’s music that has become part of me. When I lived in New York I played nothing else but Monk for a year. His themes are clear, and don’t need any explanation. You sometimes see those slick jazz cats playing standards, and all at once it’s a Monk tune. Then they are faced with a problem. It’s not easy for them just to apply everything they have learnt to Monk’s idiosyncratic themes. His composition style alone forces musicians to reinvent their idiom and leave their safe territory. Monk obliges the musician to start dancing too.’
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Do you like dancing, Josse?Josse De Pauw: ‘Yes, I’ve always liked dancing. I’m also pretty sure that during that so-called middle stage I danced more than those I saw around me. I like to lose myself in dancing. I got that from my family. My parents danced a lot, and liked going to dances. Before they left we put the table to one side and danced. Ten singles on one of those long spindles, ten times three minutes. All mixed up together: waltzes, quickstep, jive. Even now, no family party is complete without each of the sons dancing with our mother. So it’s an atmosphere I got to know as a child. From an early age I picked up a certain swing that makes me feel good.’
Do you find it hard to still like your ageing bodies?Josse De Pauw: ‘‘You have to learn to cope with the bobos, as we call them in Brussels: those little complaints and pains that ageing brings. But it’s not hard to live with them.’
Kris Defoort: ‘The advantage for jazz musicians is that you can always carry on playing with what you’ve got, even if it becomes less and less. It can even make the music more interesting. You tap new sources. Ornette Coleman has continued developing and refining his own idiom. It’s still a monument. The opposite may also occur. A few years ago I saw a poignant concert by the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. I had seen concerts of his in the past, when he could still play like a virtuoso. Later his left hand became paralysed. Throughout the concert he tried to play the way he did when he was young. And that’s very tragic.’
Josse De Pauw: ‘When we’re young we think we’re going to have that perfect body forever. We can allow ourselves the illusion that everything is all sorted out. That overconfidence is young people’s strength. One of the advantages of getting older is that the memory of the perfect body is much easier to handle than when you still had it. That is the secret of all faiths. Since it doesn’t exist, you can believe in it as much as you like.’
At a certain moment Monk decided never to touch a piano again. He didn’t feel like it anymore. Josse De Pauw: ‘Yes, it can happen like that. This summer I briefly thought to myself: I’m going to stop. I felt tired and ill. But the closer we came to the rehearsals for An Old Monk, the more I felt like getting started on it. So then it’s clear: it’s not time to stop yet.’ Kris Defoort: ‘If you were to stop now, Josse, you know things would go downhill very fast.’
Are you both really that old?Kris Defoort: ‘I’m now fifty-four. It’s not too bad. I’ll make one more record and then, after I’m sixty, I’ll just tour. A bit like you, Josse.’Josse De Pauw: ‘I’m sixty. It’s not a disaster, but you can no longer say ‘I’m halfway’. And once you have passed halfway things go downhill, that’s just the way it is. Riding is a little easier, but if you fall off it’s a hard bump.’
| Wannes Gyselinck |
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| JOSSE DE PAUW (1952) |The actor, author and director JOSSE DE PAUW’s career started in 1976 with Radeis Inter-national, a highly successful theatre group that performed throughout Europe and over-seas, from Vancouver to Los Angeles, from Caracas to Hong Kong, until 1984. As from 1985 he operated as an independent theatre-maker and collaborated with actors, directors, musi-cians, composers, writers and artists including Tom Jansen, Dirk Roofthooft, Luk Perceval, Guy Cassiers, Jan Decorte, Jürgen Gosh, Jan Ritsema, Jan Lauwers, Manu Riche, Peter Ver-meersch and FES, Claire Chevallier, George van Dam, Jan Kuijken, Eric Thielemans, Rudy Trouvé, Roland Van Campenhout, Collegium Vocale, I Solisti del Vento, Corrie van Bins-bergen, David Van Reybrouck, Mark Schaevers, Jeroen Brouwers, Koenraad Tinel, Gorik Lindemans, Benoît van Innis, David Claerbout, Michaël Borremans and Herman Sorgeloos. He performed his first major film part in 1989, and since then has performed in more than fifty Belgian and foreign films. He has himself directed two: Vinaya and Übung. He has worked with directors including Dominique Deruddere, Marc Didden, Guido Hendrickx, Eric Pauwels, Jos Stelling, Franz Weisz, Orlow Seunke and Marc-Henri Wajnberg. In addi-tion to plays, he also writes stories, observations, notes and travel stories. His writings have been collected in two books: Werk and Nog (published by Hautekiet). He has adapted Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano for the stage for the director Guy Cassiers, and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace for Luk Perceval. But he is known above all as the author, actor and maker of such successful plays as Weg, Larf, Übung, die Siel van die Mier, Ruhe, Strange News, Liefde/zijn handen, Een Nieuw Requiem, De Versie Claus, Over de bergen, De Gehangenen, Boot & Berg and An Old Monk and HOUSE. The Fes-tival d’Avignon invited him in 2014 to play these last two productions. 2016 will see the pre-miere of his new production The Key, after the book by Japanese author Jun’ichiro Tanizaki.
| KRIS DEFOORT (1959) |studied recorder and early music at the Antwerp Conservatory and jazzpiano, composition and free improvisation at the Liège Conservatory Between 1987 and 1990 Kris Defoort lived in New York, the birthplace of jazz. After his return to Belgium he continued on his musical odyssey, as a composer, pianist and improvisor, and leader of the sextet KD’s Ba-sement Party, his trio KD’s Decade, Octurn, Dreamtime and more recently Sound Plaza. Kris Defoort also worked with performers and ensembles in the contemporary jazz scene (Jim Black, mark Turner, AKA Moon, Vegetable Beauty, Garrett List, Paul Rodgers, Han Benninck etc.) Since 1998 Kris Defoort is a resident composer at LOD. At the end of 2001 Kris Defoort was commissioned by LOD, Ro theater, deSingel, La Monnaie and others, to compose the opera The Woman Who Walked into Doors, based on Roddy Doyle’s book of the same name. In 2002 Kris Defoort created Conversations with the Past, a work for wind instruments, piano, harp, double bass and percussion, commissioned by the Filharmonie (Antwerp). In 2003 he created his String quartet n°1 together with ConVerSations/ConSer-Vations, a project based on Renaissance music. As an artist in residence at the arts centre BOZAR in the 2006-2007 season, every aspect of his musicianship has been shown: as an improvising pianist and a composer. In 2009 the world premiere of his second opera House
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BIOGRAPHIES
AN OLDMONK
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of the Sleeping Beauties (production LOD, Toneelhuis, la Monnaie), directed by Guy Cas-siers, took place at La Monnaie Brussels. In 2010 Kris Defoort created his next LOD project, Brodsky Concerts, a piece based on the writings by Joseph Brodsky, in which he was on stage together with the actor Dirk Roofthooft.
| NICOLAS THYS (1968) |currently lives in Brussels, after having spent seven years in Amsterdam and seven years in New York. He can be seen performing at large festivals all over the world (Japan, the United States, Canada, Africa, Europe) with artists such as Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner, Lee Konitz, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Mal Waldron, Philip Catherine, Thomas Sztanko, David Linx and Zap Mama. He is also a member of Tuur Florizoone: MixTuur, Kris Defoort Trio and Tutu Puoane Quartet. In 2009 a personal project with Chris Cheek resulted in the CD Virgo, produced by his own record label Pirouet. He also has several film tracks to his name (Love the hard way with Adrien Brody, Diamant 13 with Gérard Depardieu and The Visitor, in which he also played a role). Nick teaches master’s students at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and the Conservatorium Leuven.
| LANDER GYSELINCK (1987) |has transformed from an emerging young talent to an established and respected name on the Belgian jazz and improvisation scene in a relatively short space of time. He derives his inspiration, not only behind the drums but also as a composer for his own bands LABtrio and STUFF, from contemporary electronic music. His inventive and exploratory drumming style has accorded him a broad and individual sound palette that is appreciated by a wide range of musical fields. This means he thrives in very diverse artistic environments ranging from jazz, contemporary electronics to experimental improvised music. He is a member of the Kris Defoort Trio, Jazz Plays Europe and Network of Stoppages (Sanne Van Hek). In 2010 he won the Toots Thielemans Jazz Award and in 2012 he received the SABAM Youth and Music Award at the Ghent Jazz Festival. Lander currently lives in New York.
| BENOÎT VAN INNIS (1960) |studied at Sint Lucas in Ghent. In the Eighties he was known for his often absurd humorous drawings in publications such as De Morgen, De Standaard, De Volkskrant, Paris Match, Lire and The New Yorker, etc. His paintings fit in with the tradition of the innovative pic-torial form such as that which appeared in Flemish painting at the end of the Eighties. His work has been exhibited in numerous art galleries and museums, such as Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle (2008–2009) or the Roger Raveelmuseum in Machelen (2010). In 2014 he was part of the group exposition “Museum to a scale 1/7” in BOZAR.
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| BACHE JESPERS (1970) |started working for the fashion designer Dries Van Noten after he completed his studies at the RIKSO art school and Sint Lucas. He is still there, responsible for visual imagery and music coordination. His passion for music and photography has resulted in long-term joint ventures with Belgian musicians. Bache has supplied images for artwork of for example Zita Swoon, El Tattoo Del Tigre, Flowers For Breakfast and Rudy Trouvé (Dead Man Ray, Kiss My Jazz, Lionell Horowitz and other Heavenhotel projects).
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“***** The words and music merge perfectly into one another. The performance is a true dialogue between the narrator and the various musicians. De Pauw draws a lot of energy from the music, which at first prompts him to do a ‘dance’. At a later stage he enters into conversation either with the whole trio or with its individual mem-bers. The whole evening rides along on impro-visation and freedom. This unity and the plea-sure of working with each other yields a fresh and effervescent performance. It is quite simply musical theatre at its best. What we have here is a performance that is as good as perfect.”- Johan Thielemans, COBRA.BE, 8.11.2012
“ De Pauw and the music dance together in a real duet. Kris Defoort, bassist Nic Thys and drummer Lander Gyselinck improvise and, through their own music, enter into that of Thelonious Monk. They become lyrical, exuberant and contrary, and help set the atmos-phere. (…) An Old Monk is characterised by lightness, melancholy and a healthy obs-tinacy. Thelonious Monk would undoubtedly have done a dance.”- Karel Van Keymeulen, DE STANDAARD, 9.11.2012
“A wonderfully successful and jazzy ode to life.”- Els Van Steenberghe, KNACK, 11.11.2012
“De Pauw leads the proceedings. A list of the medical terms for complaints that may arise as one ages results in participation by the audience, which, enthusiastical-ly and in full voice, appears to drive thrombosis and incontinence out as if they were evil spirits. In the meantime the jazz trio also responds enthusiastically to the sto-ry and both the actor and the musicians create a compelling whole that merges toge-ther well. When the dancing man at the piano finally fades away, it’s time for reflec-tion, on the basis of life-sized photos (by Bach Jespers) with expressionist additions (by Benoît van Innis). We see the body of the dancer De Pauw, sometimes adorned, some-times not, in several phases. A series of dreamlike images that enable the viewer to fantasise a comparable story on the basis of his own experience of life.”- Roger Arteel, THEATERMAGGEZIEN.NET, 14.11.2012
““It seems Josse De Pauw has forgotten how to fail. (…) An Old Monk is a truly great Josse De Pauw solo. Hovering between concert and stage monologue, between iconoclasm and intimate dance, between touching tragedy and provocative humour, he talks about everything that makes a human human. He doesn’t chose the easy way, and at the end even goes for an intriguing sort of anticlimax, but he wins me over with no effort at all. So what I’m saying is: be quick and book your tickets, because according to what I’ve heard all the performances are almost sold out – and quite right too.”- Griet Op de Beeck, DE MORGEN, 18.11.2012
THE PRESS ABOUT AN OLD MONK
AN OLDMONK
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“A marvellous Josse De Pauw somewhere between hope and despair. The trio plays Thelo-nius Monk, but also their own work, such as Le lendemain du lendemain, always seasoned with improvisation. Lander Gyselinck deserves a special mention, because he’s a drum-mer with a tremendous feeling for timbre. De Pauw himself is also musically convin-cing. At one point he recites Are We Dreaming by the British bard Kevin Coyne with superb diction and outstanding timing, creating a moving highlight.”- Didier Wijnants, DE MORGEN, 20.11.2012
“In the musical performance An Old Monk, Josse De Pauw and the jazz musicians form a marvel-lous quartet, because in this show De Pauw is a musician among musicians. And his own poetic lines, which he sets under, over, between and behind his musicians’ notes are themselves a meticulous composition with recurring themes and refrains and even a real sing-along number. (…) An Old Monk is witty, moving, compelling and exceedingly musical. It is, in short, musical theatre the way it should be, and, what is more, extremely danceable.”- Robbert van Heuven, THEATERKRANT.NL, 21.11.2013
“An Old Monk is undoubtedly one of the ten best performances of the season. (…) Josse De Pauw tells the story and celebrates. Inventive, funny, true to life. The music likewise. (…) All power and freedom, Thelonius Monk would have been mad about it.”- LE TEMPS, 18.06.2013
“The music by the Kris Defoort Trio has three pillars: the compositions by Defoort, the-mes from Monk, and improvisation, which interlock to form a free-thinking whole and largely create the atmosphere. (…) De Pauw is a masterly storyteller and actor, who fills the whole stage with his voice, language and body.”- **** HET PAROOL, 28.10.2013
““This performance is pure jazz in acting style and language, just as free as the way Monk himself played. (…) With his big, powerful body and resonant voice, De Pauw praises the vitality of life, swinging and overwhelming.”- NRC HANDELSBLAD, 29.10.2013
“The discovery of the evening was undoubtedly An Old Monk. (…) After an incubation pe-riod of ten minutes you grasp the rules of the game and penetrate Josse De Pauw’s world. Your ears are treated to a well-balanced interaction between words and music and when this briefly fades away you enjoy the pure, funny, moving and even tragic confession of this ‘old monk’, who gets very close to our own lives with his fears and petty traits – and ultimately the absurdity of his narcissism.”- JAZZMAGAZINE.COM, 13.11.2013
“[Josse De Pauw] moves, in perfect symbiosis with the amazing musicians (…) A won-derful invitation to shed any kind of restraint and live freely.”- LE DAUPHINÉ, 18.07.2014
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“A wise lesson in life, without getting pedantic and full of animo, supported by the pres-ence of the jazz trio, perfectly in its place in this play, their music intertwining comple-tely with the monologue of the actor.”- LESINROCKS.COM, 19.07.2014
“Two amazing talents, each in their domain! … Why not just think of them as a quar-tet, since each and every one of them are an asset to the play, fusing equally into an elegant joint effort, sometimes improvising, sometimes introspecting. … Why not just think of it as a whole, a performance that almost reaches perfection, amazin-gly played by four artists, playing, in the first place, out of their shared joy for life?” - INFERNOMAGAZINE.COM, 19.07.2014
“A great dancer arises on stage … Josse De Pauw speaks as he dances, he lets his words and body interact with one another … The actor scrolls through life, through its me-diocrities and routines, lets everything pass by just as it pops into its head … The man with the solid body, weighty on stage, turns into a gracious presence, airy and elegant.” - L’HUMANITÉ, 24.07.2014
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| LOD muziektheater |is a Ghent production company for opera and musical theatre, a creative base for perfor-ming artists. It undertakes to map out long-term trajectories; with such composers as Kris Defoort, Daan Janssens, Jan Kuijken, Vasco Mendonça, Dominique Pauwels and Thomas Smetryns, and with the directors Josse De Pauw and Inne Goris. In addition, we remain open to those who – always surprisingly, but never by chance – cross our artistic path: Patrick Corillon, Pieter De Buysser, Denis Marleau, Fabrice Murgia and François Sarhan. Our company is intended to be an overarching platform for these artists, and is meant to offer them the resources to develop their ideas.
It is now 25 years since we started creating productions that often turn out to set trends for the contemporary opera and musical theatre scene. The Woman who Walked into Doors and House of the Sleeping Beauties (Kris Defoort, Guy Cassiers), Die Siel van die Mier and De Gehangenen (Josse De Pauw & Jan Kuijken), Muur (Inne Goris, Dominique Pauwels), Ghost Road (Dominique Pauwels, Fabrice Murgia), The House Taken Over (Ka-tie Mitchell, Vasco Mendonça), An Old Monk (Josse De Pauw, Kris Defoort) are just a few of the productions that embody our breadth of view. The results of these artistic joint ventures are not easy to categorise, and make a lasting impression.
ABOUT US
AN OLDMONK
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| Valérie Martino |Artistic and international [email protected] +32 9 266 11 33M + 32 484 59 61 78
| Marianne Cattoir |Press and [email protected] +32 9 266 11 39M +32 472 44 52 15
| LOD muziektheater |Bijlokekaai 3B-9000, Gent+32 9 266 11 [email protected]
| Frans Brood Productions | Gie Baguet
Tine Scharlaken
+32 9 234 12 12
www.fransbrood.com
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