M, a reflection
One day THE OTHER will come to me, the antipode, the double with my face of snow.
From: Der Auftrag, Heiner Müller
If there is one theme that dominates the work of the German author Heiner Müller (1929-1995), it is that of the paradoxes and contradictions of history. During his lifetime he experienced several political regimes: fascism, communism, capitalism and neo-capitalism. He witnessed the disintegration of Germany and the reunification, the Cold War and the post-1989 era. More than anyone else, he has described our primary need for an enemy: the solidarity between master and slave, of Good and Evil, our need for The Other with whom we cannot cohabit but without whom life is just as impossible. Indeed, both individually and politically our identity is determined by The Other, whose identity we in turn shape.
Kris Verdonck comes closer than ever to traditional theatre and at the same time moves it several decades forward. - De Standaard
In K, a society, the theatre-maker and artist Kris Verdonck created a sequence of images inspired by the world of Franz Kafka. In M, a reflection he condenses Heiner Müller's world into one image. An image that is duplicated and enters into a dialogue with itself. On stage the audience sees the actor Johan Leysen – using Müller’s writings – in conversation with his antipode. This doppelganger challenges him, contradicts him or agrees with him. Both images – the real actor and his reflection – reflect each other both literally and figuratively. In our ‘society of the spectacle’, reality can no longer survive without fiction, and the real and the fake are inextricably linked.
concept and direction Kris Verdonck | dramaturgy Marianne Van Kerkhoven (Kaaitheater) | actor Johan Leysen | costume design An Breugelmans | video Vincent Pinckaers | production and technical coordination A Two Dogs Company in collaboration with Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus | co-production Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus (Düsseldorf), Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin), Internationale Keuze van de Rotterdamse Schouwburg (Rotterdam), Vooruit (Ghent) | support the Flemish Authorities, the Commission of the Flemish Community
