Frank Focketyn & Rashif El Kaoui

Dimitri Leue ventures with great pleasure into the courtly art of seduction of Maurice Maeterlinck and pushes Frank Focketyn and Rashif El Kaoui into the harness of love. The courtiers Pelleas and Golaud search fruitlessly in a forest for the beautiful Melisande and find only each other in a superlative of love. They circle around each other like rutting deer and treat the audience to a range of feelings. Is there a greater fool than one in love? ‘Is it not too dark under this tree? Here we cannot see how happy we are.’ Two master actors tumble light-footedly through this courtly love story, where threat is also never far away. Toen Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911, the jury mentioned that it was mainly for his plays. ‘Characterized by an abundance of imagination and poetic refinement.’ Dimitri Leue retranslated the text of the Ghent native from French. The romantic sighing and the repetitive flirting with danger sound even sharper in Dutch. ‘Pelleas&Melisande’ is such a wonderful fairy tale for adults about a forbidden love relationship, jealousy and melancholy. The text inspired quite a few composers: Debussy, Schönberg, Sibelius and Fauré set this symbolist play to music. Antoon Offeciers adapts the music of Debussy and gives it a jazzy sound and feel. The music is brought live by Antoon, Tim Vandenbergh and Karel De Backer. Costumes are stitched together with silk thread by Lynn Wauters. Credits: Acting: Rashif El Kaoui & Frank Focketyn                                                         Livemuziek: Antoon Offeciers, Tim Vandenbergh, Karel De Backer       Tekst, direction & scenography: Dimitri Leue Muziekcompositie: Antoon Offeciers Kostuums: Lynn Wauters - Atelier Utilisé Foto's: © Peter Claeys Reels and trailers: Arn Vanwijmeersch Techniek: Sonista Lay-out: Sofi Van Hauwe / Nico Goossens