BLACK (The sorrows of Belgium 1: Congo)
In the trilogy The Sorrows of Belgium, consisting of the national tricolour Black/Yellow/Red, director Luk Perceval zooms in on three dark passages from Belgian history. The first part, Black, is a true record about one of the first Congolese travellers in history: the African-American William Henry Sheppard, who was called ‘the Black Livingstone’.
Grote Zaal
Duration: not yet known, no intermission
Language: Dutch
Dutch premiere
Part 1 of a trilogy about radical events in Belgian history.
William Sheppard travelled to Africa in February 1890 as a missionary for the Presbyterian Church. Together with his white travel companion Sam Lapsley, he embarked on a radical adventure in completely unknown territory, where he experienced one surprise after the other. Lapsley did not survive the mission, but Sheppard returned to America and from there, was one of the first to heavily criticise the abuses in the Congo.
Part 2 of the trilogy, Yellow, will deal with the collaboration with the German occupiers during the Second World War, while in Red, the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels will take centre stage. Both performances wille be shown in Internationaal Theater Amsterdam.
In de pers
'Een groots werk.' - De Standaard
'Luk Percevals Congo-aanklacht Black in NTGent: een welkome mep in je gezicht.' - De Morgen *****
'Een zinderend gesamtkunstwerk.' - De Standaard
'De tableaus die de acht acteurs samen creëren zijn beeldschoon, maar nooit vrijblijvend.' - De Morgen *****
'Dit is theater in zijn meest prangende, relevante verschijningsvorm, theater dat zich met beide voeten in het hier en nu bevindt.' - De Morgen *****
'Black is wreed, maar het is geschiedenisles die als een theaterstuk op geen enkele manier beter verpakt kon worden.' - Het Nieuwsblad
Luk Perceval (Lommel, 1957) is a Flemish actor and director. After is studies at the Koninklijk Vlaams Conservatorium in Antwerp, he got to work as an actor with the Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg (KNS). He then founded, together with Guy Joosten, the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie (the BMC) in Gent, 1984. In 1998, Perceval founded Het Toneelhuis: a fusion between the Gent BMC and the Antwerp KNS. Since 2005, he has mainly been active in Germany: first as the resident director of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, and as leading director with the Thalia theatre since 2009.
He won the Jan Oscar de Gruyter award in 1991, for his directing in the pieces Strange Interlude and De voader. In 1998, Perceval’s theatre pieces were awarded by various theatre critics. The play Ten Oorlog (1999) earned Tom lanoye and Perceval the Thalia award. The German version of the play Schlachten! Was selected for the prestigious Berlin Theatertreffen, and won the Innovations award there in 2000. In 2001, Peter Verhelst and Perceval won the Taalunie Toneelschrijfprijs for Aars!.