De andere stem

Telephone without mercy

In 2009 Halina Reijn performed in La voix humaine, a monologue by Jean Cocteau from 1928. You see and hear a woman phone her ex-lover for the last time, the telephone plays a merciless role. It is only the woman’s reactions that hint at her absent ex’s replies. Who is it on the other end of the line? Now Ramsey Nasr presents his version of events, again directed by Ivo Van Hove.

While Cocteau’s monologue outlines the tragic story of one woman, this new play emphasizes the inextricable union of a couple who are desperately, and unsuccessfully, trying to detach themselves from one other. Ramsey Nasr: ‘For years it seemed to me a logical question: what does the man on the other end of the line actually say? To my surprise, I heard and read again and again that he had to be a pretty heartless man: to run off with another woman so soon after his relationship had ended. What a brute! But who says this is so? Literally: who says this is so? Nobody.'

• Ramsey Nasr (1974) is a writer, actor and director. He has been the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands and Antwerp’s city poet. In 2013 he appeared in Lange dagreis naar de nacht in his first performance in thirteen years. Since then he has been a member of the ensemble of Toneelgroep Amsterdam.

#bignames #matinee