Needcompany presents - in cooperation with Bebuquin: 'Billy's Geweld', the original dutch theatre text by Victor Afung Lauwers that was translated for 'Billy's Violence', the performance by Needcompany.

Dutch text. Bebuquin, 2021. 147 pages.
ISBN 978-90 7517 588-2

Jan Lauwers’ first publication in Spanish, involving words from Isabella’s room, The Lobster Shop and The Deer House; together the Sad Face | Happy Face trilogy.

In Spanish. 184 pages.
ISBN 978-950-33-1046-5
Papeles Teatrales, Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades | UNC

Marketplace 76 is the darkest story Jan Lauwers has written for his high-spirited ensemble. With Lauwers himself in the role of narrator and leader of the brass band, Needcompany sings and dances the story of the village. A village that is mourning the consequences of a tragic explosion on the marketplace.

The play-script is being published by Actes Sud.

Actes Sud Théâtre, June, 2013. 64 pages.
Translated in French from Dutch by Anne VANDERSCHUEREN
ISBN 978-2-330-01946-4

Jan Lauwers has written Marketplace 76, a kaleidoscopic epic story composed of four seasons. It is a meticulous report on villagers who have been overtaken and driven forward by time, and in spite of everything are not always able to survive heroically. Marketplace 76 reconciles such dark themes as mourning and sorrow, incest and abduction, paedophilia and suicide with excessive love, friendship, happiness and survival.

Publié par De Nieuwe Toneelbibliotheek, 92 p.
ISBN 978-94-6076-151-5

Anna Sophia Bonnema’s libretto, Analysis - the Whole Song, is the final piece in a trilogy on contemporary opera,Tokyo, Paris, New York – a Pop Opera Trilogy. t's a journey through time and space in which our protagonists, Ricky and Ronny, are confronted with iconic historical figures.

t's a contemporary, poetic, mythical and religious story, a spiritual quest full of questions and encounters, where one can feel the whole of human history vibrating.

De Nieuwe Toneelbibliotheek, The texts are written in English. 82 p.
ISBN 978-94-6076-106-5

Anna Sophia Bonnema wrote the libretto for The Ballad of Ricky and Ronny - a Pop Opera and Ricky and Ronny and Hundred Stars - a Sado Country Opera by MaisonDahlBonnema & Needcompany. The texts are written in English.

Published by De Nieuwe Toneelbibliotheek, 114 p.
ISBN 978-94-6076-030-3

November 2009 sees the publication of the first Dutch-language publication of the collected work of Jan Lauwers. It is called KEBANG! and is published by Van Halewyck.

Uitgeverij Van Halewyck

I was prompted to write The Deer House by the sometimes tragic peripheral events that take place within the close circle of NC. While we were on tour somewhere in France, one of our dancers, Tijen Lawton, received the news that her brother, the journalist Kerem Lawton, had been shot dead in Kosovo. His tragic death provided the starting point for a play about a group of theatre-makers who are increasingly faced with the harsh reality of the world they travel around in.

Everything is politics, but art isn’t everything. Art always gets caught between the pages of history: it is futile and has no influence on any events at all, which is where the mysterious necessity for it lies.
- Jan Lauwers

Paris: Actes Sud-Papiers, 2009. French, 59 p.
ISBN 978-2-7427-8232-1

Jan Lauwers’ first publication in German, involving words from Isabella’s room, The Lobster Shop and The Deer House; together the Sad Face | Happy Face trilogy.

Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 176 pages
ISBN 978-3-596-18220-6

Since its first performances now 20 years ago Jan Lauwers’ theatre work with Needcompany has challenged the contemporary performing arts and provoked some of the best pieces of theatre criticism. No beauty for me there where human life is rare. On Jan Lauwers’ theatre work with Needcompany is the first collection of critical essays to appear about this prominent, Brussels-based but international company. It gathers texts by a variety of eminent writers working in different disciplines (theatre and performance studies, comparative literature, philosophy, cultural sociology) who take up the artistic, aesthetic and philosophical questions raised by Needcompany’s post-dramatic theatre. With contributions by such authorities as Hans-Thies Lehmann, Marvin Carlson, Martin Harries, Jürgen Pieters, Rudi Laermans, George Banu and many others this attractively illustrated collection should prove invaluable to everyone interested in Needcompany, its artistic context and the performing arts in general.

Editors: Christel Stalpaert, Frederik Le Roy, Sigrid Bousset
Published by: Academia Press, International Theatre and Film Books, 2007
English, 389 p.ISBN 978-90-382-1057-5

Books are sold during the shows. You can order a copy of the book via: Proxis, Academia Press, Boekenbank

For two months Jan Lauwers showed his visual work in a solo exhibition entitled Restlessness, curated by Jérôme Sans at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.
This exhibition was accompanied by a substantial volume on Lauwers’ art work, focusing on the period from 1996 to 2006. 

I use as many different means of expression as I possibly can. At first I found that frustrating; now I see it as a blessing. I am no longer afraid of it. The restlessness it causes serves as a driving force. Every medium raises different questions. In visual art you have to destroy your virtuosity, while in the theatre world you have to foster it.
Extract from an interview with Jérôme Sans

Brussel - by fonds Mercator, Bozar Books & Needcompany
English, 176 p.ISBN 978 90 6153 730 4

For sale during the shows and via Mercatorfonds.

For two months Jan Lauwers showed his visual work in a solo exhibition entitled Restlessness, curated by Jérôme Sans at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.
This exhibition was accompanied by a substantial volume on Lauwers’ art work, focusing on the period from 1996 to 2006. 

I use as many different means of expression as I possibly can. At first I found that frustrating; now I see it as a blessing. I am no longer afraid of it. The restlessness it causes serves as a driving force. Every medium raises different questions. In visual art you have to destroy your virtuosity, while in the theatre world you have to foster it.
Extract from an interview with Jérôme Sans

Brussels: by fonds Mercator, Bozar Books & Needcompany
French, 176 p. ISBN 978 90 6153 768 7

Two texts by Jan Lauwers, Isabella's Room followed by The Lobster Shop, collected in a French edition of Actes Sud-Papiers.

Paris: Actes Sud-Papiers, 2006
French, 80 p. ISBN 2-7427-6108-X

Literary magazine (Dutch). Texts from & about Jan Lauwers.
A separate quire (16 pages) is available: Polaroids: 'The Paradise of the Camel Leon'

Gent: MER. Paper Kunsthalle, September 2006, Dutch

Order a copy on dwb.be.

VANDEN ABEELE Maarten e.a.

Brussel: Needcompany, Amsterdam: International Theatre and Film Books, 1998
Dutch, French, English, 131 p.: ill. ISBN 90-6403-514-8

Leda is the story of a love act. A story in which the boundaries between violence and love, hatred and pleasure, suffering and death, have been completely blurred.

LAUWERS, JAN
Antwerpen: Bebuquin, 1995. Dutch, 92 p.
ISBN 90-75175-06-X

In May 2016, Jan Lauwers became the first Belgian to exhibit at the brand new McaM in Shanghai, a museum of contemporary art headed by the Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie.

Silent Stories is intended as a monumental installation, in which Lauwers reinterprets and combines past works and materials. For this exhibition he uses so-called inferior material such as used packing cases, old wainscoting, and pieces of discarded wood, to which he gives a new value by transforming them into supports for images.

McaM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shangai, 2016