Chaostrilogie
Party in the crypt of the monstre sacré Wilfried Pateet-Borremans
In 1999 a new theatre company was born in a back room in Mechelen. Ten years later, Abattoir Fermé can look back on a sizeable repertoire of spoken-word theatre, wordless hyper-visual creations and varied projects on the boundaries of theatre, music, film and performance. Through their work runs a thread of horror, black humour, dehumanised outbursts and poignant loneliness.
Abattoir Fermé’s tenth anniversary is being celebrated with the publication of a book and, in Brussels, a remix of the notorious Chaos Trilogy at the Kaaitheater and a re-run of Galapagos at the Beursschouwburg.
For the Chaos Trilogy, the three original plays (Indie, Tinseltown and Lalaland) are being modified to make a single marathon performance. The piece is set against the backdrop of Lalaland, a metropolis where the apocalypse has already started. Dogs roam the corridors of skyscrapers and people spit on each other to cool themselves in the heat. Superheroes prefer a quiet suicide to an existence among Hitler clones, electronics junkies, Mr Pandas and aspiring actresses. The nerve centre of this metropolis is Wilfried Pateet-Borremans – stage director, monstre sacré, brilliant lunatic. This old man has cultivated an artificial universe in a box, including a Milky Way in which life evolves. In this box he creates a play: ‘terrible, strange and impenetrably deep’.
The Chaos Trilogy: specially for this tenth anniversary, and then never again!
EXTRA: On 22 & 23 January 2010, Abattoir Fermé will again present Galapagos in the Beursschouwburg.
‘Abattoir Fermé let out a confused scream in the deepest caverns of mankind. The echo we get back is sickening and endlessly enthralling.’
(De Standaard on Tinseltown)
‘Is this perversion disguised as theatre? That too. But anyone who wants to see through this surface coating, will see an intelligent play about theatre, politics, consumption, scientific progress and technology, but also about a lack of communication and love.’
(De Morgen on Indie)
BOEK: Abattoir Fermé. Anatomie
The Mechelen theatre company Abattoir Fermé, which has made a name for itself both in Flanders and abroad with its powerful, hyper-visual productions, is celebrating its tenth anniversary at the Kaaitheater with a remix of the Chaos Trilogy (December 2009). This anniversary also provides the occasion for a celebratory publication from Lannoo Publishers. Anatomie/Anatomy will be a collage of written extracts, essays, literary contributions and statements, plus striking pictures, all in a design that does full justice to the distinctive Abattoir Fermé aesthetics. The book is in three languages and is thus intended for a broad and international readership. For sale at Kaaitheater or mail to info@abattoirferme.be
published by Lannoo in October 2009 | in Dutch, French and English | € 24,95
text Stef Lernous, Joost Vandecasteele | direction Stef Lernous | with Tine Van den Wyngaert, Chiel van Berkel, Mark Verstraete, Kirsten Pieters, Pepijn Caudron | music Kreng