Project 2: Soma Sema
Sema Soma, the second project by PONI, opened at the Kaaitheaterstudio’s in October 2006. This international performance collective was put together by the musician and artist Frank Pay and comprises a number of highly individual performing artists from a variety of disciplines. The thing that connects them is their ‘punk attitude’, their brutal energy, their anarchistic approach, and their interest in the ritual aspect of the performing arts. Their first project, The Bacterial Tour (2004), might be described as a rock concert interrupted by theatrical acts. The basis for Sema Soma comprises three key words: ritual, illusion and death. From this starting point, the theatrical space, with its curtains and wings, is subjected to a ‘striptease’. The result is a powerful, energetic performance in which codes, signs and forms from theatre, art, film, music and so on are brought together: scraps of various languages which together form a new language.
In the closing event of the season we shall be reviving this successful project in the Kaaitheater’s main theatre.
created and performed by Frank Pay, Erna Omarsdottir, Kate McIntosh, Charles Blondeel, Rodolphe Coster, Marc Lallemand, Lieven Dousselaere, Gudni Gunnarson, Sylvi Kretzschmar, Jesse Van Bauwel
light Marc Lhommel
sound Xavier Van Wersch
production In Utero vzw
executive production Margarita Production
coproduction Kaaitheater, Sophiensaele (Berlin), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Parc de La Villette (Paris), Buda Kortrijk
