Bruegel

The figure that will take the viewer on a journey through time is Dulle Griet: the woman who is taunted as a 'battle-axe' because she steals objects for hell. But what if she isn’t robbing those objects, but is trying to save them? Lisaboa Houbrechts creates a story based on those lost objects.

Bruegel is performed by a wonderful cast consisting of: Rand Abou Fakher, Louise Bergez, Lobke Leirens, Romy Louise Lauwers, Andrew Van Ostade who plays Pieter Bruegel and Anne-Laure Vandeputte in the role of Dulle Griet. Each time Lisaboa Houbrechts challenges her performers to multi-faceted playing styles that are allowed to rub and clash with each other.

Late medieval madrigals, sung by the polyphonic ensemble Harmonia Sacra, connect with the compositions of kamancheh player Mostafa Taleb.

-|- 'Stories from history are behind closed doors. They have been manipulated, erased, forgotten or reduced to a lucid event. That is why, with Bruegel, I build a large web around a few imaginary objects. These were handed down from the Low Countries, an area that at the time was shaken by religious conflict, famine, and the slow outbreak of the Little Ice Age.

In this way I try to take a specific look at the origins of Dulle Griet, the work of Bruegel, the relationship between the personal, the political and the Golden Age – an era that rises like a tidal wave and leads to a dramatic fall.' - Lisaboa Houbrechts about Bruegel

text and direction Lisaboa Houbrechts
with Rand Abou Fakher, Louise Bergez, Romy Louise Lauwers, Lobke Leirens, Anne-Laure Vandeputte, Andrew Van Ostade
music Mostafa Taleb (kamancheh, composition, vocals) and Harmonia Sacra: Jérôme Bertier, Florent Baffi, Capucine Meens, Stéphanie Révillion
assistant director, dramaturgy Pauwel Hertmans
scenography Oscar van der Put
costume design Kasia Mielczarek
lighting design Carlo Bourguignon & Oscar van der Put in collaboration with Diederik Suykens
-|- production Toneelhuis, Kuiperskaai
developed in Co-labo
with thanks to KMSKA, LLS Paleis ruimte voor actuele kunst
co-production Le Phénix Valenciennes, Needcompany, La Villette Parijs
with support from Culturele samenwerking Vlaamse Gemeenschap and regio Hauts-de-France, Tax shelter measure of the Beggian federal government, Casa Kafka pictures - Isabelle Molhant - casa Kafka tax Shelter empowered by Belfius