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CONCEPT & DIRECTION Josse De Pauw COMPOSITION Jan Kuijken TEXT Maurice Maeterlinck TEXT EDIT Josse De Pauw & Jan Kuijken FINAL MONOLOGUE Tom Jansen WITH Josse De Pauw, Gorges Ocloo, Taka Shamoto MUSICAL DIRECTION Marnix De Cat MUZIKALE UITVOERING Collegium Vocale Gent LIGHT & DECOR Eric Soyer COSTUMES Greta Goiris TECHNICIANS Brecht Beuselinck, Jannes Dierynck, Wim Piqueur ENGLISH TRANSLATION Laurence Alma Tadema PRODUCTION MANAGER Kristel Deweerdt PRODUCTION LOD muziektheater en Theaterproductiehuis ZEELANDIA COPRODUCTION KVS Brussel, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Theater Aan Zee, Collegium Vocale Gent, Le Manège Maubeuge, Théâtre de Namur, GoneWest, cultuurprogramma van de provincie West-Vlaanderen voor de herdenking van WOI MADE POSSIBLE PARTLY BY Grensverleggers, regeling ter ondersteuning van culturele samenwerkingen tussen partijen in Vlaanderen, de Provincie Noord-Brabant, de Provincie Limburg en de Provincie Zeeland WITH THE SUPPORT OF Tax Shelter maatregel van de Belgische Federale Overheid
Powerful plays have something to say in any era. Maurice Maeterlinck wrote Les Aveugles more than a century ago, and it is still perfectly fit to read, speak, sing and listen to, and is still utterly comprehensible in our own time.
A group of blind people on an island, in a wood, in autumn. They can hear the sea and the falling leaves. They are waiting for their guide, their leader, the priest. The one who can see. Where is he? Has he gone away? For a while or forever? Will he come back? Is he dead? They don’t know. They can’t see. They wait.
The blind, the washed up, the refugees, the abandoned… the ones who cannot see. And the priest, the leader, the guide… Can he see or is he sighted yet blind? And the audience, the ones who come to watch… can they see?
Josse De Pauw and Jan Kuijken adapted the text of Maeterlinck to a performance, with Jan Kuijken’s music performed by Collegium Vocale Gent and with Josse De Pauw, Taka Shamoto and Gorges Ocloo on stage. The Blind is the third part of De Pauws Trilogy / Trifony, after The Heroes and Mankind.