Modesta (play of language and lips)
Residencies
- 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
direction Anna Franziska Jäger & Nathan Ooms I performance Christine De Smedt, Anna Franziska Jäger, Arthur Loontjens, Nathan Ooms & Rosie Sommers I costumes & scenography Carly Rae Heathcote I dramaturgy Bojana Cvejić I sound design Lander Gyselinck I production CAMPO I coproduction December Dance, Kaaitheater, Kunstenwerkplaats, Festival actoral, SPRING Festival, Theater Neumarkt & Perpodium I with the support of the tax shelter of the Belgian Federal Government through Cronos Invest & the Flemish Government.
Image by Anna Franziske Jäger