het TheaterFestival

No Yogurt for the Dead – Histoire(s) du Théâtre VI

Tiago Rodrigues / NTGent

dates

Wed 27.08, 20:00

tickets

Thu 28.08, 20:00

tickets

€28 / €30 / €32
UITPAS €5,6
Drama Date: €31

location

NTGent Schouwburg

duration

100 min

language

Dutch, English and Portugese

Supertitles: Dutch, English

Dutch ★★★☆ (you should have a good understanding of Dutch and be able to say some things)

Info

“No Yogurt for the Dead is a rich and warm-blooded performance about deeply human themes, one that lingered with the jury long afterward – emotionally and intellectually. Can theatre really conquer death?”

What if theatre could win over death? With ‘No Yogurt for the Dead’, world famous director Tiago Rodrigues attempts to imagine his father’s last words.

In No Yogurt for the Dead, Tiago Rodrigues, artistic director at Festival d’Avignon, takes inspiration from a true story about his father. Rogério Rodrigues, a respected Portuguese journalist started writing a newspaper article in his final days in the hospital. Every day, his father would write in his notebook to prepare this text about his experiences as a terminal patient. Both Tiago and his father knew this would be his final article.

Upon his father’s passing, Tiago Rodrigues opened the notebook of his father. It contained only a few lines and dots, a few scribbles, like the abstract drawings of a toddler. Now, Rodrigues aims to imagine the unwritten pages of his father’s last work. Mixing memories, songs or fragments of his father’s writings, Rodrigues builds a performance that wishes to be a small victory over death.

After Miet Warlop, Angélica Liddell, Tim Etchells, Faustin Linyekula and Milo Rau, Tiago Rodrigues is yet another celebrated director that is invited by NTGent to take part in the prestigious Histoire(s) du Théâtre series.

In his installment, each scene is a playful variation on the theme of farewell. The stage forms a surreal landscape where hospital beds glide across an icy sea, as a metaphor for life’s tumult. With music and poetry as the grammar of a theatre that finds reasons for joy even in the saddest of stories.

Reviews

"Rodrigues’ dramaturgical craft at full display"

—Laura Cappelle

"This is the story of a play that breathes life into death and turns disappointment into wonder. A story that is true and unique, universal because it is personal; a story that concerns us all"

—Anne Diatkine

"Rodrigues captures dying in all its dramatic potfulness. The gentleness with which he does so is balm on the soul"

—Evelyne Coussens

Credits

Text and Direction: Tiago Rodrigues

Cast: Lisah Adeaga, Manuela Azevedo, Beatriz Brás, Hélder Gonçalves

Dramaturgy: Kaatje De Geest

Assistant Director: André Pato

Light Design: Dennis Diels

Set Design: Sammy Van den Heuvel

Costume Design: Ilse Vandenbussche

Sound Design: Frederik Vanslembrouck

Original Music and Arrangements: Hélder Gonçalves

Dutch Translation: Lut Caenen

Production: NTGent

Co-production: Culturgest Lisboa, Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, Wiener Festwochen