Needlapb

Needcompany puts on an annual presentation called Needlapb. It is a unique opportunity to take a look at the working process and be offered an insight into future Needcompany projects. In this Needlapb, Needcompany shows the initial steps towards two productions for 2015: The Time Between Two Mistakes and The Blind Poet.

The Time Between Two Mistakes is a commentary on Peter Brook’s ‘The Empty Space’ and for this purpose delves into the Needcompany archive. When images from the archive are looked at anew, their content changes. The visual idioms of Grace Ellen Barkey and Jan Lauwers are being brought face to face for the first time, to the music of Maarten Seghers.
At the same time, the spectator’s view and the artist’s role in society are questioned and made more specific. Such statements as ‘an artist has to be nice, so you can understand’ and ‘if art is my lover, then who the f*** are you?’ are chanted around, making the theatre hilarious, passionately and violently burst its seams.

The Blind Poet is the latest play by Jan Lauwers, in close cooperation with the composer Maarten Seghers, which will premiere at the Kaaitheater during the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in the spring. How much has the history we know actually been determined by lies, chance encounters and events along the way?
Jan Lauwers starts out from the performers’ family trees and is writing an alternative history of the world based on their various nationalities, cultures and languages. About strong women who throw stones and end up at the stake. About a crusader in armour that’s too small.