ACT

In ACT, Kris Verdonck explores various aspects of the relation between the human on the verge of disappearing in the work of Samuel Beckett. ACT approaches Beckett in three ways: with a monologue with Beckett texts (Stories and texts for nothing), performed by Johan Leysen, with a scientist, invited to react to Beckett and with an autonomous scenography, a possible landscape for a Beckett text.

The variety and multidisciplinary approach reflect the complexity of Beckett’s work and are at the same time an attempt to literally take apart this complexity. The triptych of Science, theatre and high-tech show, as in three acts, each a different facet of the diamond ‘Beckett’. They deepen each other’s experience: a particular way of performing brings a scientific insight to life and vice versa, a performative scenography zooms in on the underlying world of or perhaps after the actor and offers a more contemplative experience.

• As a director, Kris Verdonck explores the intersections of the visual arts, theatre, performance and architecture. He found beauty in the catastrophic in Conversations (at the end of the world) and Untitled. Over the next four years, he will research the connections between Beckett’s work – in which (the) Nothing occurs – and the secrets of 14th-century Japanese No-theatre.

“Een uur lang hang je aan de lippen van een man die hopeloos verstrikt raakt in zijn poging zichzelf en de wereld rondom hem te definiëren. Een ontroerend portret van de westerse mens op zoek naar zin en betekenis.” – Jury Het Theaterfestival