ROMAN TRAGEDIES
Shakespeare that jumps straight from the headlines! Ongoing war, secret deals made by politicians, on-the-spot interviews, fiery speeches about democracy, cameras peering into the private lives of men and women lusting for power – it’s all in Shakespeare’s writing. It was simply a matter of giving this world of turmoil a theatrical form that hurls it headlong into the very heart of our era.
That tour de force has been realized by director Ivo van Hove in this presentation of three Roman tragedies – Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra – that shed light on the political mechanisms of our contemporary world. The setting is an international convention centre with a television studio, omnipresent screens and monitors, computers and big sofas. Spectators walk about freely, getting drinks or consulting their e-mails as political events rapidly unfold around them, like live CNN footage. Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the foremost theatre company in Holland, presents a powerful spectacle of rare intelligence.
PRODUCED BY TONEELGROEP AMSTERDAM
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DIRECTION: IVO VAN HOVE
DRAMATURGY: BART VAN DEN EYNDE + JAN PETER GERRITS + ALEXANDER SCHREUDER
WITH ROELAND FERNHOUT + RENÉE FOKKER + FRED GOESSENS + MARIEKE HEEBINK + FEDJA VAN HUÊT + CHICO KENZARI + HANS KESTING + HUGO KOOLSCHIJN + HADEWYCH MINIS + CHRIS NIETVELT + FRIEDA PITTOORS + ALWIN PULINCKX + HALINA REIJN + EELCO SMITS + KARINA SMULDERS
MUSICIANS : BL!NDMAN: RUBEN COOMAN + YVES GOEMAERE + WARD DE KETELAERE + HANNES NIEUWLAET
SET AND LIGHTING DESIGN: JAN VERSWEYVELD
COSTUME DESIGN: LIES VAN ASSCHE
VIDEO: TAL YARDEN
MUSIC: ERIC SLEICHIM
COPRODUCTION HOLLAND FESTIVAL (AMSTERDAM) + LA MONNAIE (BRUXELLES) + KAAITHEATER (BRUXELLES) + MUZIEKTHEATER TRANSPARANT (ANVERS) + BL!NDMAN (BRUXELLES)
WITH THE SUPPORT OF EMBASSY OF KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS + THE PERFORMING ARTS FUND NL
PRESENTED BY FESTIVAL TRANSAMÉRIQUES
IN ASSOCIATION WITH MONUMENT-NATIONAL + CARREFOUR INTERNATIONAL DE THÉÂTRE DE QUÉBEC
REDACTION: PAUL LEFEBVRE
TRADUCTION: NEIL KROETSCH
IVO VAN HOVE (AMSTERDAM)
TONEELGROEP AMSTERDAM
Created in 1987, Toneelgroep Amsterdam is the foremost repertory theatre company in Holland. Ivo van Hove has been general director since 2001, and the company has a permanent troupe of 21 actors, with the emphasis on resolutely contemporary theatre
