genesis (I, II, III)

A cruel and confusing place, where the banished man finds refuge. Where he is confronted with forces that are beyond his understanding. At times it rains fire and brimstone, at times only drops of water, but weeks at a time, until everything has been engulfed. There is nothing as confusing, however, as the forces he discovers in himself: jealousy, desire, bloodlust. But the most ungraspable feeling of all is love.

In his latest production, Thomas Ryckewaert takes on one of the most paradoxical masterpieces of world literature: Genesis, the first book of the Bible. A play about our lifelong attempt to control the chaos.

This production is the third part of a triptych in which this poetic and shocking work is explored from several perspectives. Genesis (I) – Science introduces the audience to the knowledge of philosophers, theologians and Bible translators. Genesis (II) – Religion is a celebration of the Eucharist directed by Ryckewaert. Church- and theatre-goers are the joint witnesses of a 2000-year-old ritual that has been subtly amended in a composition made up of light, sound, song, text and silence. In Genesis (III) – Theater, Ryckewaert stages his version of the Book of Genesis. In search of a contemporary ritual.

In Genesis (I, II, III) Ryckewaert successively directs the scientist, the priest and the actor. A quest for the source of theatre, for the essence of ritual. Is liturgy theatre? Is theatre liturgy?

In fact I believe nothing,
And I doubt everything, even You.
But sometimes, when I feel You really do exist,
Then I feel that You are Love, and that You are lonely,
And that, sharing my despair, You seek me
Just as I seek You.
Gerard Reve