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LOD muziektheater

SILBERSEE

INNE GORIS THOMAS SMETRYNS

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If silence would have to incarnate into matter, it would be snow.

| Amélie Nothomb |

‘As a child I knew exactly when a carpet of white snow lay outside.

It was silent.

Outside, where there should have been noise, quietness reigned.

Everything sounded muted.

The world was not only white, but soundless too.’

For everyone from 4 years old onwards.

SNOW

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CREDITS

CONCEIVED AND DIRECTED BY Inne Goris

MUSIC Thomas Smetryns

MUSICIAN Toon Callier

MUSICAL DIRECTOR Romain Bischoff

SINGER Natasha Young

SOUNDSCAPE & EDITING Benjamin Dousselaere

SET Ruimtevaarders

LIGHT Mark Van Denesse

COSTUMES Lieve Meeussen

PRODUCTION LOD muziektheater, Silbersee (ex vocaallab)

WITH THE SUPPORT OF Kopergietery

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INTRODUCTION

The piece starts off from two sources of inspiration: on the one hand there is snow, the substance, which has a mass of contradictory properties (light, vulne-rable, small, wet, enjoyable, dangerous, intrusive, slow, pleasant, cold etc.). On the other hand, there’s the age-old Russian fairy tale of Snegurotshka, about a snow-girl who lives on the rhythm of nature, but who can also control that nature. There are several versions of the story, but in every one of them, the girl has control over certain natural phenomena, such as mist, ice and snowstorms. However, she can-not stand heat, which makes it impossible for her to fully take part in the human world. She’s often alone, but finds herself protected by a fire-red fox that follows her around everywhere she goes.

There’s just one female dancer/singer on stage, assisted by a guitarist. She tells her story in a universal language. The designers from Ruimtevaarders are translating the natural power that emanates from snow into a poetic set that flirts with hot and cold, light and dark, vastness and intimacy, chaos and order.

Snow takes you on a visual and musical journey that can take the form of a different story for everyone in the audience. Put together like a snow crystal: at first sight it’s a thick flake, but the longer you look, the more you’re struck by the finesse and beauty of its bifurcations.

SNOW

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PLANNINGSNOW

2015

10 february Cultuurcentrum Hasselt

12, 13, 15, 16 february Kopergietery Ghent

18 february Spinrag Festival Kortrijk

19 february CC Westrand Dilbeek

21 february De Spil Roeselare

22, 23 february De Warande Turnhout

25 february Chassé Theater Breda

2, 3 march CC Brugge Brugge

11 march CC De Werft Geel

15, 16 march Bronks Brussels

17, 18 march C-Mine Genk

22, 23 march CC Berchem Berchem

13, 14 november GrowUp Festival Denmark

2016

13, 14, 15 january Théâtre d’Arles Arles

17, 18, 19 january Pôle jeune public Revest-les-Eaux

25, 26, 27 january Le Carré Saint-Maxime

3 february CC De Ster Willebroek

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| CATCHING A SNOWFLAKE |

Following Once Upon a Time (2008), Inne Goris has again created a family production for four and older. Dance, music and visual theatre tell a swirling story, about snow. ‘The primary starting point for Snow is a fascination with the topic of snow’, explains Inne Goris. ‘How while still in your bed, with the curtains closed, you can hear that it has snowed; how the noise of the world suddenly sounds muted; how the world not only be-

comes white but also silent. Snow evokes very diverse associations: it is soft and breakable, but can also be hard and painful, cold and pleasant, playful and dangerous. A second starting point is the age-old Russian fairy tale Snegoerotsjka, about a snow maiden who can only live in the freezing winter cold, and who melts when spring returns. While the intent is not a literal staging of this fairy tale, it does open up a world of fantasy, including music: a world of fur hats, reindeer and words that freeze before they can be uttered.’

This is the first time that she is working with LOD composer Thomas Smetryns, who also wrote the music for The Devil Bedevilled (2009) and The Incredible Changes of Mister Afzal (2013). For the scenography, she again called upon the designer duo Ruimtevaarders (Karolien De Schepper & Christophe Engels), following their collaboration in acclai-med productions such as Father, Mother, I and We and Daydream. On stage are only a singer-dancer, Natasha Young, and an electric guitarist, Toon Callier.

INNE GORIS : « Snow will be a story without words. Only images, dance, light and music. No language, except perhaps for self-concocted Russian. The Russian crept in via the Russian snow maiden, a traditional fairy tale of which there are countless versions. In one such version, one evening an old childless couple makes a snowman, a girl. The old woman, before going to sleep, gives the snowman a kiss. The next morning the mittens and cap lie in the snow, and the old couple see the snow maiden running through the winter forest. The snow maiden must avoid the warm cosiness of ordinary people, otherwise she will melt. When winter is over, she melts with the first warmth of spring.»

THOMAS SMETRYNS : « In fact, it is a typical story present in all cultures, about the transition from winter to spring. Think of the myth of Proserpina, who must stay in the underworld during winter, and in the spring may return to her mother, the goddess of nature, thereby allowing her to flourish again. What I like about the Russian version is that the roles are reversed. The finest period for the snow maiden is the winter, when she can live life to the fullest. She melts in the spring, just when nature is experiencing a rebirth. Thus her ‘death’ – if I may call it such – is sad, but at the same time festive. I like this tension. It makes story very emotionally diffuse: the maiden dies, but nature and people breathe again. »

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AN INTERVIEW WITH INNE GORIS AND THOMAS SMETRYNS

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INNE GORIS : « What also speaks to my imagination is how close she is to nature. She in fact is the winter forest. Thus she can manipulate the four elements, call up a blizzard and cause it to recede. This evokes theatri-cal images. Our plan, however, is to do our own thing with the story. It is merely a stepping stone for our imagination. What mainly interests me now is giving the artistic team several weeks to improvise around the question of what snow means for them. And then to find a common thread in this. »

« I myself see the production beginning with an empty stage. Then a single snowflake swirls downward. The scene on stage, the decor, deve-lops as the snow begins to fall. And because there is snow, the snow maiden can appear. At the moment, I have in my head the Italian anima-ted series La Linea, in which everything starts from a line. In our case a snowy horizon from which the maiden can appear and disappear, al-lowing her to look different each time. But there are other possibilities

I also want to examine. Is it possible to actually make it cold on stage? What would a bliz-zard look like in a theatre? Can you convince people that they are truly sitting in snow? Among others to say that snow is a lot of fun because you can make snowballs, but these can be extremely hard when they hit their target; you can make slides, but also fall hard. These diverse associations, the constant volatility that snow is to subject to, fascinate me. Hard yet fragile. It’s not possible to catch a snowflake, but an avalanche can bury you. »

THOMAS SMETRYNS : « I also want to create a cold world musically. With Toon Callier we have a live musician on stage, alongside the dancer-singer. Hence there is not only a soundtrack, but the maiden can relate to the music live on stage. Thus a tension can arise between the two, the maiden and the musician. This also fits with the Russian fairy tale. In one of the versions she consorts with a fox that protects her, gives her advice and keeps her company. In a certain sense Toon can play this role, a fixed point in space to which the maiden can relate. The sound of Toons electric guitar, which can sound sharp, thin and airy, also fits perfectly with our snowy, winter landscape. It sounds crystal clear, almost like a falling snowflake. »

INNE GORIS : « This snowflake of course does not have to literally be a flake from the start. It can easily be suggested by the interplay of music and light. This I believe is a constant in my work: I like to tell stories without words. The limitation of a pure body, of wordless dancing, yet still expressing something. It’s nice that our singer, Natasha Yung, is strong in singing as well as in dance and movement. »

THOMAS SMETRYNS : « Appropriate but coincidental: formerly a professional figure skater, she later followed vocal training. A singing, dancing maiden – almost a sort of shaman – will evoke a mysterious magic for children. A mix of fascination and astonishment, as well as a bit of fear. »

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INNE GORIS : « This magical combination of a body that simultaneously sings and dances, the physicality of both forms of expression, also gives form to something essential in the snow maiden: she is different. Which is something that frequently appears in my work. The fate of the out-sider. And then the question of how to deal with that difference. With the loneliness. How she tries to connect with other children, who can return home in the evening after playing in the snow to warm them-selves by the fire. How, despite all of these limitations, can you find a place in the world? »

THOMAS SMETRYNS : «  I also wish to give the peculiar identity of the maiden colour via her singing. She is located in an intermediate world between people and nature. Her singing will sometimes sound like the cry of a snow owl or a wolf – animals I automatically associate with frozen, snowy landscapes. Then I will have her sing in a language that sounds like Russian. I also want to sample existing Russian nursery rhymes or folk songs taken from old records and edit these into a new

Russian song. My plan is not to hide the scratchiness of the records but rather to amplify it into something that sounds like the wind. This approach to sound fits well with the winter soundscape we will be creating together with Benne Dousselaere: the cracking of the ice, footsteps in the snow, the wind blowing across the tundra. Regarding melodic material, I do hear something in the high fast melodies of Stravinksy in Les Noces, in turn also plucked from Russian folklore. Echoes of singing peasant girls from a nearby valley, something like that. »

INNE GORIS : « The nice part about youth theatre is that so much is possible. That you as maker still have so much freedom. Children don’t hear avant garde music, they hear a mood. It’s the adults who say: “Such difficult music, such a serious topic.” Children find something beautiful or ugly, boring or exciting. You can easily transport children into a world that is far from self-evident. In fact, frequently it’s the children who must explain the production to the adults. »

| Wannes Gyselinck |

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Once upon a time there was a girl. She grew up devouring books – out of desire, out of curiosity, out of necessity. This girl developed a love for literature, a passion for stories that would lead her to her true motivation in life: creation.

| INNE GORIS |

was trained as a theatre director and drama teacher at the Maastricht School of Drama. From 2009, she has been creating under the wings of LOD music theatre. The way theatre enables people – children and adults – to express emotions, intrigues her. Inne Goris possesses a very specific theatric language; powerful, pure and refined, and sparkling with suppressed emotion. The darker the world seems, the brighter the sparks shine on Goris’ stage. Her creations are always rooted in the dark and harsh reality, yet full of hope and a desire for warmth. Her work is based on a well thought-out network of sensations, that arises in the head and the heart of the creator, unfolding into a wake of intriguing imagery, filled with stories and emotions.

Inne Goris is a wayward theatre director whose work balances on the borders of performance, visual art, theatre and dance. Manchester International Festival is happy to present a number of her characteristic productions – four of which are produced by LOD|music theatre – each a whirlwind of music and emotion, communicating a way of thinking that leaves room for the audience to question and fill in for themselves.

Inne Goris made her theatre debut with Niet in staat tot slechte dingen (BRONKS, 1996-1997), an intriguing portrait of the hard and ruthless world of children at play. A year later the theatre maker created Zigzag Zigzag, inspired by David Grossmans’ famous book ‘The Zig Zag Kid’ in the BRONKS workshop. After this she worked as a dramaturge for Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekey-bus. The premiere of Zeven took place in November 2001; in this installation Inne Goris ma-naged to translate the existential unrest into a free theatre idiom that was powerful, refined and sparkled with suppressed emotion. Zeven originated from Goris’ fascination for fairy tales and their implicit, dark undertone. In 2003 she collaborated with Bart Moeyaert in Drie Zusters. In that same season she directed Pride and Prejudice (Het Toneelhuis, 2003-2004). All three performances were nominated for the 1000 Watt Prijs. Moreover, she was awarded this prize for Drie zusters in 2003.

The idiom and vision she developed in these performances have won her esteem as an artist. She is a special theatre maker whose idiom and work are a cross-over between art, theatre and dance. Together with LOD she directed Judaspassie (Passion of Judas) (2009), a project of Dominique Pauwels based on a text by Pieter De Buysser. Nachtevening (Equinox) (LOD & ZE-VEN), the second part of her diptych based on the classic Medea, premiered in November 2009.

For Muur (Wall) (premiere May 2010), Inne Goris once again drew inspiration from a text by Pieter De Buysser. LOD composer Dominique Pauwels composes the music. In 2011 Inne Goris and Dominique Pauwels presented Music Box/Droomtijd, (July), a musical installation in

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BIOGRAPHIESSNOW

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a container and the family performance Father, Mother, I and We. Together with Pauwels and video designer d’Haeseleer she has created Hoog Gras (Long Grass) which premièred at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in May 2012. In 2013, Inne Goris was a guest with several of her pro-ductions at the Manchester International Festival along with LOD. Zigzag Zigzag (2013) also premiered there, and went on to tour Belgium in 2014, where it was selected by the children’s jury for the 2014 Theatre Festival. In 2015, Snow (4+), premiered, her first collaboration with Thomas Smetryns. In 2016 she will be working again with Dominique Pauwels for Without Blood, after the novel by Alessandro Barrico.

| THOMAS SMETRYNS |

studied composition with Godfried-Willem Raes, and guitar, lute and theorbo with Ida Polck and Philippe Malfeyt at the Ghent Conservatory. As a composer he is very in-terested in the search for a new, experimental musical practice that remains anchored in an historical and/or social (sub)consciousness. He shares this interest with the Ame-ricans Brent Wetters and Jonathon Kirk; together, they form the composers’ collective “Medusa”.

Smetryns has written works for such artists as the Spectra Ensemble, Daan Vandewalle, trumpet player Jason Price, M&M ensemble, and the HERMES ensemble. He is also ac-tive as a lutenist in the Oberon Consort, which is specialised in the Italian Renaissance and Early Baroque periods, combining this with other freelance activities. In his work

as a DJ of exclusively 78 RPM records he again deals with placing the musical past in a contem-porary context. Thomas Smetryns teaches analysis of 20th-century music at the Ghent Conser-vatory and guitar at the Oostende Conservatory.

For LOD, where he is artist in residence, he made the visual musical tale De duivel beduveld (The Devil Bedevilled), a collaboration with Patrick Corillon, and together with Pieter de Buysser he made The Incredible changes of Mr Afzal (we won’t mention his glass leg).

| TOON CALLIER |

(Belgium, 1983) obtained his Master’s degree in Classical Guitar at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp in 2006. In 2009 he obtained a magna cum laude Master after Master degree as a soloist of contemporary music at the Conservatoire in Ghent. While there, he received guitar lessons from the internationally renowned guitarist Tom Pauwels (of Ictus, Plus-Minus and other ensembles). Toon’s solo repertoire, both for classical and electric guitar, includes music by Hans Werner Henze, Steve Reich, Lois Vierk, George Crumb, Fausto Romitelli and Larry Polansky. Toon Callier is a co-founder of and musician in the electric guitar quartet ZWERM, artistic assistant with Champ d’Action, the Antwerp contemporary music ensemble, and as a performer is also involved in such ensembles as Nadar, Besides and the Brussels Philharmonic.

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| RUIMTEVAARDERS |

(Space Travellers) is the name of the stage design duo of Karolien De Schepper and Chris-tophe Engels. They have been designing spatial projects for festivals (Theatre Festival), theatre (SKaGeN’ Wonderland and Almschi!), museum exhibits (Military Museum), exhibitions, tem-porary installations (de Nachten, MAS, deSingel Art City), events (2008 Cultural Awards) and so on, since 2008. Combining their skills as a qualified architect and an artist, Karolien and Christophe decide how they will use the parameters of (a) space. Their spatial interventions have an infectious effect on the venues, stages and theatres where they stage their interaction. They are firm believers in transience, gravity, proportions and chance. Apart from Ruimtevaar-ders, Karolien works as assistant stage designer at La Monnaie/De Munt and Christophe works as a freelance artist, photographer, 3D designer and website designer.

| SILBERSEE (EX-VOCAALLAB) |

makes physical opera. With a group of versatile performers we create sensual and musical theatre to bewitch, shock, stir or quieten.

Theatre maker, singer and conductor Romain Bischoff initiates artistic collaboration between composers, choreographers, singers, actors and other artists, from the classical domain to ur-ban and hip hop culture. Artistic currents thus flow towards Silbersee from every direction, producing powerful eddies and surging waves. And ultimately merging to create an art form in silver.

At Silbersee we explore and develop contemporary forms of opera. We are convinced that there is no need for this genre to be a bastion of tradition when it can stimulate the senses as a cutting-edge theatre form of the present.

As well as the projects we initiate ourselves, we also make co-productions with organisations that have an affinity with our artistic vision or that wish to draw on our expertise. We perform in a wide spectrum of international venues, from theatres to churches and from Oerol to the Holland Festival.

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BIOGRAPHIESSNOW

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“The best part? Walking up to that wall. To that shimmering silver/yellow construc-tion, looking like some sort of op-art mirage. There’s some static coming through your headphones, then some music. You’re wondering what’s going to happen, what to expect. You see kids running around and you think: they probably are playing here all the time.” – POST UTOPIA PARKWAY

“A very quiet and slow but also charming performance where the smallest ray of light, the reddest apple again have the effect when the fairy tale was told for the first time.“ - DE STANDAARD

“The female wins from the saving prince in this fairy tale with both simple and refined imagined emotions. Sometimes other worlds are more effective than the known.” – DE MORGEN

“Hoog Gras is an intense and impressive theatre trip.“ - DE STANDAARD

“After the end of the performance, many members of the audience remained in their seats to see the whole thing out to the very end. This performance is definitely a must-see for people who are ready for an intense, impressive theatre experience.” – NOORDERZON BLOG

“Beautifully stylised, raw realism. Peter Verhelst’s text is just as sublime and absorbing as the images. ” – VOLKSKRANT

“Director Inne Goris knows at a glance how to get an extreme amount of drama and mate-rial from even the smallest gesture. (…) Performers Lieve Mueessen and Jorge Jauregui Allue are phenomenal in their game of attraction and repulsion.“ - KNACK

“Father, mother, I & we is a painkiller for the child’s soul. … a marvellously simple, excep-tionally exciting set… Inne Goris makes a complex subject accessible and digestible with a sensitive and consistent visual idiom, plus scarce but crucial spoken lines. The silent, absolutely superb projected images by the video artist Kurt d’Haeseleer are enchantingly effective.“ - DE MORGEN

PRESS RELEASES ON EARLIER WORK OF INNE GORIS

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PRESS ABOUT SNOW SNOW

“I like making theatre that doesn’t follow classical logic. It wouldn’t be the first time I hear kids explaining to their parents what they just saw. Children look at things from a curious perspective, like a blank canvas. They’re not defined yet by fixed perspectives.” – INNE GORIS IN DE STANDAARD, 13 FEBRUARY 2015

“In 2009, Goris broadened her horizon in many ways, through the connection with the Ghent production house LOD music theatre. … Inne Goris’ productions always contain a certain risk, something that scours, that gives a kind of counterbalance for the – in this case – perfectly white world. The danger in this case lies in the transitoriness of the Snowgirl; in her sheer existence, she already embodies her disappearance. Everything around her seems to be aware of this, except she. This essentially turns her into a tragic character. And it turns Snow into a beautiful, yet melancholic precious painting.”– ***, THEATERKRANT.NL, 15 FEBRUARY 2015

“Inne Goris may not choose the happy ending that is often so characteristic for child-ren’s plays, in her own way she absolutely succeeds in bringing up emotions in the young audience. A little kid that runs out to the window immediately after the show, to see whether it was really snowing outside as well; that about sums up the magic of it.”– DE GENTENAAR, 16 FEBRUARY 2015

“Everything is possible and nothing is certain. That’s the way Inne Goris likes it. … The great thing about this production is the combination of the set, the alert acting ànd the gorgeous voice of Young – a composition by Thomas Smetryns, who strings frail sounds together into melodies that are as delicate and fragile as snowflakes. The combination of all this leads you into a wintery fairytale wood… At the same time, this creation [seems to be] a visual installation as well, that invites the audience to dwell, romp, rollick and disappear along with the girl, into the white purity, carried by the pure music. Snow is yet another confirmation of Inne Goris’ rich and dark theatre language, that carves into your soul.” – FOCUS KNACK, 20 FEBRUARY 2015

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| LOD muziektheater |

is a Ghent production company for opera and musical theatre, a creative base for performing artists. It undertakes to map out long-term trajectories; with such composers as Kris Defoort, Daan Janssens, Jan Kuijken, Vasco Mendonça, Dominique Pauwels and Thomas Smetryns, and with the directors Josse De Pauw and Inne Goris. In addition, we remain open to those who – always surprisingly, but never by chance – cross our artistic path: Patrick Corillon, Pieter De Buysser, Denis Marleau, Fabrice Murgia and François Sarhan. Our company is intended to be an overarching platform for these artists, and is meant to offer them the resources to develop their ideas.

It is now 25 years since we started creating productions that often turn out to set trends for the contemporary opera and musical theatre scene. The Woman who Walked into Doors and House of the Sleeping Beauties (Kris Defoort, Guy Cassiers), The Soul of the Ant and The Han-ged (Josse De Pauw & Jan Kuijken), Muur (Inne Goris, Dominique Pauwels), Ghost Road (Do-minique Pauwels, Fabrice Murgia), The House Taken Over (Katie Mitchell, Vasco Mendonça), An Old Monk (Josse De Pauw, Kris Defoort) are just a few of the productions that embody our breadth of view. The results of these artistic joint ventures are not easy to categorise, and make a lasting impression.

LOD focuses resolutely on what is to come, among other things through our commitment to young talent. We are working on the future of musical theatre through the European Network of Opera Academis (enoa), which provides high-quality workshops for young performing ar-tists and opportunities for lasting exchanges between international opera houses.

It all started in Ghent, a long time ago, with Lunch Op Donderdag (Lunch On Thursday). With a passion for musical theatre. And international collaboration has been one of the foundations of our work since the beginning too. LOD muziektheater, an international production company and place of creation – a view of the world. Ghent-Made.

ABOUT USSNOW

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| Valérie Martino |

Artistic coordination & international relations

valerie@lod.be

T + 32 484 59 61 78

| Marianne Cattoir |Press & communication

marianne@lod.be

T +32 9 266 11 39

| LOD muziektheater |

Bijlokekaai 3

B-9000, Gent

+32 9 266 11 33

info@lod.be

www.LOD.be

CONTACTSNOW