Familie
In 2007 in Calais, a whole family hanged themselves: the parents and their two children. Never a motive was found, the suicide note stated: 'Sorry, we messed up.' 'Unnerving and heartbreaking celebration of the ordinary.' - The Guardian *****
start at 20:00 h
Grote Zaal
duration 1 h 45 minutes
spoken in Dutch, surtitled in English
world première 4 January Gent
Familie will be staged by a real family: actors An Miller and Filip Peeters will not only act together as a couple, but for the first time in their career they will be on stage with their two teenage daughters Leonce and Louisa – and their dogs.
What reasons, what traumas underlie such a suicide? Familie is an experiment, an ethnological study of today’s private life, an exhibition of the everyday: on stage we see the house of Family Demeester – or is it the house of the Family Peeters/Miller? Together they will reconstruct the mysterious case of the Family Demesteer, following the journey of their own family, questioning the construction of family as the cell of life and origin of our world today.
Fiction and reality mix, as we see on stage an evening like many in families – just that it is the last one. We watch a family eat, shower, learn English, watch videos. We see them talking to each other about everyday things, making phone calls, listening to music, cleaning up the apartment, remembering moments of their lives. And in this exhibition of the normal, the big questions arise: Why are we here? Why am I here? And wouldn't it be better if we would disappear?
After shooting a new version of the "Gospel" with refugees in South Italy and while staging in the burning Amazon "Antigone" by Sophocles with indigenous activists, Rau and NTGent present with "Family" an intimate look on the Western European middle class.
Milo Rau (1977) is not only a theatre maker, but also a filmmaker, sociologist, writer and journalist. Before he made his entrée into theatre, he spent years reporting from conflict areas such as Northern Iraq and Syria. In 2007, he founded the International Institute of Political Murder, which, in addition to theatrical productions, films, videos and performances, also publishes books and organises debates on social and political themes. In September 2018, Rau succeeded Johan Simons as the new director of NTGent.
"It's not just about representing the world anymore, it's about changing it." - Milo Rau
Credits
regie Milo Rau
met Filip Peeters, An Miller, Leonce Peeters, Louisa Peeters
decor en kostuums Anton Luka