Mourning in Rock
Els Van Steenberghe - Knack (19 September 2012)

Did I really have to? Drive 450 km to wonder at the antics of Jan Lauwers’ rock band (the boys and girls of Needcompany) in Bochum’s imposing Jahrhunderthalle. Yes, I did. To discover, for example, that this graceful industrial architecture was the perfect setting for the brightly coloured, flamboyant scenes in Marketplace 76. The square consists of a marble fountain, a butcher’s block, a dingy lean-to roof and a duo of musical workmen. The village community deals with its demons in a riot of singing, dancing, yelling and fighting. In delightful costumes, with the cute doll ‘Oscar’ (a dead child) and beneath a sky full of plastic dolphins and white feathers, the ‘rock stars’ brew up a two-hour mourning party. Lauwers remains a master in depicting and channelling the darkest emotions with cheerful colours and wonderful tableaux vivants. He not only devised the visuals, but also wrote the poetic, rather complicated script for this ode to life. […] The colourful images shimmer with emotion.

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