Stand Down

Uncompromising vehemence

Stand Down heralds a rupture in Jan Decorte’s oeuvre. He is leaving the classics behind, but not the great truths and mysteries that they contain. Love and death continue to be central themes. The confluence of life and art are expressed more radically than ever. He stubbornly continues to blaze his trail, and demonstrates his passion to go on despite all opposition.

Stand Down is a production that Decorte not only wants, but simply must make. Just as in Ne Swarte, last season, his stories about his eventful life are as rough as they are tender. In Jan Paternoster and Dries Van Dijck of Black Box Revelation – and all the uncompromising vehemence that they bring to the piece – Decorte and Sigrid Vinks have found their ideal musical partners in crime. The gentlemen created a brand-new soundtrack especially for Stand Down.

“Despite the ruptures that he has introduced to his own joys and sorrows, there is a clear ‘leaping over the chasms’ leitmotif in Jan Decorte’s oeuvre, namely of the search for ever-greater simplicity, for an essence of the theatre. Is it not the fervent desire of all artists to explore their own repetitions profoundly and intensely, to achieve the final goal of purity and simplicity?” – Marianne Van Kerkhoven