Life and death in the oast house

Exactly 100 years after the first edition, Kurt Defrancq now brings the third masterpiece of Stijn Streuvels, the novella ‘Leven en dood in den Ast’, to the stage. Innerwoud provides the live music. Both performers and the audience are literally ‘in den Ast’. In a black-box setup, instead of a classic hall setup, you get the feeling of being there from the front row during a stormy winter night in the Ast. Surrounded by animated images from the brand-new Graphic Novel van Ivan Adriaenssens, the spectators are immersed in a magical universe. Auteur Stijn Streuvels graced the shortlist of the Nobelprijs Literatuur no fewer than 15 times, received the five-yearly state prize for Literature three times, and received the Dutch Literature Prize for his entire oeuvre. His novels ‘De Vlasschaard’ and ‘De teloorgang van de waterhoek’ were filmed. ‘Het Leven en de dood in den Ast’ is one of the absolute highlights of Dutch-language literature. Kurt Defrancq is known to the general public as an actor primarily for his roles in popular series such as Thuis (as Eric Bastiaens) and his iconic character 'Modest’. In his forty-year career, he played in many series and theater productions. Innerwoud is the Belgian one-man band of double bassist and composer Pieter-Jan Van Assche. The project is known for an atmospheric mix of ambient and neoclassical music;