We hebben een/het boek (niet) gelezen

In 1924 Thomas Mann published his ‘great European novel’, The Magic Mountain. In June 2008 it will be 101 years ago that Mann sent his main character, Hans Castorp, on a journey from Hamburg to Switzerland. Stan, Maatschappij Discordia, Cie. De Koe, Dood Paard and Willem de Wolf, the cream of our country’s theatre companies, celebrate this with a first episode of their adaptation of Mann’s ironic masterpiece. 

Matthias de Koning: ‘In order not to succumb to the weight of the book, we shall divide it into sections and present them as separate performances, which can then be brought together in one compilation later on. In each section we will probably emphasise the confrontation of the main character, Hans Castorpe, with another character in the book. The remaining characters may well be present in an adaptation of one part, but only as extras. In each section the focus will be on the conflict between Castorpe and another antagonist. Each adapted part could be given a working title such as: Settembrini, Chauchat, Naphta and Peeperkorn.’

Following De schrijverdekoning (texts by Karl Valentin), My Dinner with André (Wallace Shawn), Vandeschrijvervandeneedevandekoningendiderot (Le paradoxe sur le comédien by Denis Diderot), Gehen (Thomas Bernhard), Antwort & Frage (Biesheuvel/de Koning) and Ononomatopee (De Schrijver, Biesheuvel, De Wolf, Van den Eede and De Koning) this new ‘poly-coproductional’ collaboration is an event to be looked forward to.