when in doubt, duck

When text becomes score

Years ago when Tine Van Aerschot first attended a performance with surtitles, she started developing an idea for a production in which the transition of the spoken to the written or the read would be the topic. And so when in doubt, duck came about; a text as an orchestral score, a performance as a concert.

The protagonist in this show is the text. In a certain sense that’s always the case, but here the actors are not charged with conveying the content but with translating and making the text readable. It’s not that the content is unimportant, quite the opposite. The text is offered in as many different forms as possible: projection, sound, spoken word, movement or dance.

The actors are the translators of the text. Everything is said and done freely. Every performer delivers his own interpretation. The reading is not directed, and so the audience becomes co-author and director.

• Tine Van Aerschot is a visual artist. She has worked for Meg Stuart, among others. In 2006 her first show I have no thoughts, and this is one of them was premiered at the Kaaistudios, followed in 2009 by Triple Trooper Trevor Trumpet girl and in 2012 we are not afraid of the dark.