[meeuw]
Toneelhuis / Olympique Dramatique, Theater Arsenaal
dates
Fri 12.09, 19:00
Sat 13.09, 19:00
€28 / €30 / €32
UITPAS: €5,6
Drama Date: €31
+ Q&A on September 12
location
Leietheater
duration
150 min
language
In Flemish Sign language (without spoken language)
Supertitles in Dutch and English
Dutch ★★★☆ (you should have a good understanding of Dutch and be able to say some things)
Info
From the jury
“In every detail, [meeuw] breathes a total vision of what theatre could be: radically accessible and boundlessly connecting.”
“We need new forms. We need new forms, and if we don’t get them, we’d rather have nothing at all.”- Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev
In [meeuw], for the first time, a full-length repertory play is translated and performed entirely in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) by a mixed cast of deaf and hearing actors.
The starting point is The Seagull (1896) by Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest and most tender plays in theatre history – about a youth searching for new ideas, and an older generation that feels threatened by them. A story of clinging to the past and longing for a free life; told from the perspective of three different generations. Love and desire as a destructive driving force during a family reunion. A comedy in four acts, as the Russian writer himself described it.
[meeuw] is an encounter with actors from the Flemish deaf community, whose native language is VGT. The cast is a mix of three deaf and five hearing actors: Yousra Boukantar, Sofie Decleir, Tom Dewispelaere, Lobke Leirens, Lut Reysen, Willy Thomas, Serge Vlerick, and Yana Wuytens. Together they search for a shared language: gesture.
ACCESSIBILITY
Reviews
"[Seagull] forces a different economy of the senses, different decisions about where you put your focus, as a spectator, actually a very different sensibility. Thus the subtle class struggle that Chekhov is always engaged in goes one step further: here communication is questioned, and even language itself."
"This piece was anything but easy to make because of all the barriers, yet the makers still find the space to also break with patriarchal norms in addition, as well as to show how difficult it is to crawl out of our bubble in this polarised world. But that it is not impossible: [Seagull] shows that too." ****
Credits
Based on: De Meeuw by Anton Chekhov
Direction: Stijn Van Opstal
Adaptation: Stijn Van Opstal, Scarlet Tummers, Tom Dewispelaere, Francis Geeraert (with thanks to Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer)
Translation to VGT: Diane Boonen, Sam Verstraete, Hilde Verhelst, and others
Cast: Yousra Boukantar, Sofie Decleir, Tom Dewispelaere, Lobke Leirens, Lut Reysen, Willy Thomas, Serge Vlerick, Yana Wuytens
Dramaturgy: Scarlet Tummers
Set Design: Damiaan De Schrijver, Stijn Van Opstal
Lighting Design: Frank Hardy
Costume Design: Monique Van Hassel
Assistant Director: Francis Geeraert
Production: Toneelhuis/Olympique Dramatique
Co-production: Theater Arsenaal
With the support of: Silence Radio, KU Leuven Campus Antwerp (Applied Linguistics), Flanders Literature, Doof Vlaanderen, the Flemish Sign Language Centre, Doof & Events, the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government via LOOK@LEO
With the support of the players of: the National Lottery, who help make this project possible
Project realised with the support of: the King Baudouin Foundation and the National Lottery