At the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Jan Lauwers and Needcompany are back again, with the world premiere of The blind poet. A performance by Needcompany is after all always quite an event, an unusual experience, both visually and emotionally. At the heart of Jan Lauwers’ theatre lies an authentic artistic commitment and a radical discourse.
In this new production, Jan Lauwers tackles the multiple identities of which we are all composed and which are therefore a part of the world we live in. Starting from their family trees, Lauwers’ actors once again journey across history, the Western history that intersects with the Eastern. In this case he requests input from the individuals, no longer the group as in the past, and he abandons the parable in favour of the portrait. The seven portraits of the seven actors in the piece are gradually fitted together to make up a new world history.
In this instance, Lauwers is inclined less towards performance and more towards theatre, and this new creation urges us to face up to the stories, the past alliances, and the forefathers, that have in the course of time underpinned our identity and our life’s path. It is not about the singular origin of what we have become (Jan Lauwers makes the stories of all of the protagonists intersect each other and goes as far back in time as the Crusades!), but much more than that: a multitude of facets that make up who we are. These seven portraits are examples of lives that have been shaped and traversed by the histories of people (who are often all too human), and on this basis we can engage in the exploration of our own identity and reflect on what has now become of our multicultural societies.
Even though the history of mankind is strewn with ‘catastrophe, ruin and murder, cannibalism and hysteria’ (like historical narratives, the theatre, and life itself!), Jan Lauwers still wants to ask the one question that matters today and which troubles us when we are confronted with the fear of the foreigner and the rise of nationalism in Europe: ‘Are we still able to meet with each other as humans in these ruins of history?’ For Lauwers the answer is an undoubted ‘yes’, and, in this extremely hard and bitter historical context in which many do little more than survive, it is thanks to love and woman as a figure – ‘mother goddess or sacred whore’ – that man will find salvation and peace! Opening the door to the Other, admitting him into your mind, without judgement or prejudice, that is a bold suggestion for the 21st century!
It could all come across as naïve and utopian, but Jan Lauwers has his feet firmly enough in the present and in history not to have to lapse into the corniness of a new hagiographic romance of mankind.
All this is presented to us on a bare stage on which only the numerous spotlights in the background form any kind of setting. In a quite physical manner, as always in Needcompany’s work, the actors address their stories to the audience more or less like a monologue. Each in turn, with their specific sensitivity and readiness to make an impression on the audience, they achieve a constant dramatic intensity that is appealing and makes one think.
This is theatre with vitality, real, hard and raw, sensitive and intense. True to life, of flesh and blood!
This world premiere really hits the target. Its argument is radical, profound and sometimes melancholy, but often very funny too. The narrative structure might have been rather monotonous (a series of seven portraits addressed to the audience), but it is not in the least so, because Jan Lauwers has the intelligence of a versatile performing artist, throwing live music and expressive images into the mix, which gives this production the power and the freedom of a modern epic.
‘I am everyone, and I am the world,’ says one of the actors in The Blind Poet: Jan Lauwers remains unique in the way he shows us the world as he would like it to be. Beauty and love. Fraternal, for sure.