End
In END, the performance artist Kris Verdonck shows the possible final stages of a human society in ten scenes. Melting glaciers, burning forests, cities under water, ubiquitous screens and cameras spying on us, the uncontrolled availability of weapons of mass destruction, and so on.
END starts out from the images the media project onto our retinas all day and every day. The ten scenes are linked by a monologue spoken by a single character: the witness who sees it all happen. While this survivor – like the messenger in Greek tragedy – talks unceasingly, a series of ‘Figures’ appears on stage: machines and people or a combination of the two. They go from one side of the stage to the other, all in the same direction. Are they fleeing something? If so, what?
Credits
Concept & direction: Kris Verdonck
Dramaturgy: Marianne Van Kerkhoven (Kaaitheater)
With: Johan Leysen, Carlos Pez González, Claire Croizé, Geert Vaes, Marc Iglesias, Eveline Van Bauwel
Text: based on recent documents found on the Internet and texts by Alexander Kluge, W. G. Sebald, Curcio Malaparte, Lord Byron, …
Video: Anouk De Clercq
Music: Stefaan Quix
Light design: Luc Schaltin (Kaaitheater)
Costumes: Dorothée Catry, Sofie Durnez
Technical direction : Herman Venderickx (Kaaitheater)
Technical assistant: Sylvain Spinoit
Construction: Hans Luyten (PlasmaMagma), Dirk Lauwers (dna), Espeel Constructies, Steven Blum
Multimedia programmation Felix Luque
Production manager: Lotte Vaes
Production: Margarita Production for stilllab vzw
Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts (B), Kaaitheater (B), Buda kunstencentrum (B), Kunstencentrum Vooruit (B), Le Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg (L), Productiehuis Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Schouwburg) (NL), NXTSTP (with the support of the European Union)
With the support of: de Vlaamse overheid, de Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie
Thanks to: Imal, Vidisquare, Frontline Rigging