Residenties

• 08.04 > 20.04.2024
• 25.03 > 29.03.2024
• 26.02 > 02.02.2024

In Modesta (play of lan­gu­a­ge and lips) , Anna Franziska Jäger & Nathan Ooms tac­kle the coming-of-age gen­re together with per­for­mers Rosie Sommers, Christine De Smedt and Arthur Loontjens. They play a mul­ti­tu­de of charac­ters and tra­ver­se dif­fe­rent sta­ges of life. A con­stant in the pro­cess is their search for the so-cal­l­ed art of joie de vivre as well as the simul­ta­neous art of loss, as well as the stri­king simi­la­ri­ty bet­ween the two.

The tit­le refers to the main charac­ter of the book The Art of Joy by Goliarda Sapienza, writ­ten in the 1960s (but not publis­hed until three deca­des later). Modesta cap­tu­res the con­tem­po­ra­ry ima­gi­na­ti­on through her uncon­ven­ti­o­nal natu­re and her uncon­di­ti­o­nal quest for a free­dom that chal­len­ges the norms and hypo­cri­sy of her time.

From a pen­chant for de-the­a­tri­cal, eclec­tic text mate­ri­al and a dis­tinct­ly phy­si­cal appro­ach to acting, Ooms & Jäger cre­a­te a world whe­re text, ima­ge and move­ment can play­ful­ly inter­min­gle. They want to push the use of ima­gery in lan­gu­a­ge, in the idea that metap­hors are a way to open up and con­fu­se thin­king — about our­sel­ves, the other or ​‘the world’. Imagery as a form of lan­gu­a­ge in moti­on; whim­si­cal, unex­pec­ted. But what hap­pens when you com­ple­te­ly blur the line bet­ween ima­gery and reality?

“I remain in lim­bo, in the whir­l­wind of ide­as and risk; alrea­dy learning, alrea­dy fai­ling, alrea­dy spaw­ning, alrea­dy grie­ving, alrea­dy trus­ting, alrea­dy wor­king, alrea­dy res­ting — in the midst of this sin of lan­gu­a­ge and lips.”

Love’s Work, Gillian Rose