Reviews
WALPURGIS breathes life into a libretto by Jeroen Brouwers
Brussel – Musictheatre company WALPURGIS does not shun contrasts in Jeroen Brouwers’ BDE (bijnadoodervaring – near death experience): the contrast between young and old, between misanthropy and tender beauty.
Artistic director, Judith Vindevogel paves the way for a dialogue between death and life, which is putting up violent resistance – translated by the exciting sound of Stray Dogs (Frederik Meulyzer and Koenraad Ecker), whose style is somewhere at the crossroads of postrock, jazz and electronics.
Brouwers’ lines have been stripped of personal anecdotes. Only the essence remains: an older man, who is averse to society is driven back to the beginning in the face of his impending death. He is on a motorway to his native region, propelled by nostalgia. In addition to the physical journey he also undertakes a mental roadtrip and mercilessly weighs the road covered.
François Beukelaers’ performance is contained and vulnerable while the boys of Stray Dogs inject a musical heartbeat under his words. And then there are also the two video screens on which the video artist duo, Karen Dick and Diederick Nuyttens unleash their vitalistic visual collages. It is their thankless task to narrate those things that have not yet been revealed in the music or in the words. All too often, however, they never seem to transcend the stage of symbolic illustration: dark forms are the spirits near the River Styx, a sunrise represents a birth.
Vindevogel has attempted to give each of the three media their own narrative power but the nature of live performance means that you continuously have to strive for a balance. Despite this the contrast effect works. Brouwers reminds us that we are all constantly in a state of near-death but the musical intensity of BDE creates resistance.
De Morgen, 08/12/2011, Evelyne Coussens
Reactions
A so-called near-death-experience, or maybe better a close-to-death experience, cannot be caught in words. It is truly an overwhelming, unimaginable and totally unexpected experience, that people can experience under certain and changing circumstances. The ruling and oh so familiar world view is completely turned upside down. Jeroen Brouwers succeeded very well in capturing this unspeakable experience in words in a comprehensible and intriguing way. An impressive and thrilling achievement.
Pim Van Lommel – cardiologist and author of Endless consciousness
