Frank Focketyn, Arjan Schepers and Rashif El Kaoui: Pelleas&Melisande&Pelleas

Dimitri Leue gladly ventures into the courtly art of seduction of Maurice Maeterlinck and pushes Frank Focketyn and Rashif El Kaoui into the armor of love. The courtiers, Pelléas and Golaud, search fruitlessly for the beautiful Mélisande in a forest and find only each other in a superlative degree of love. They circle each other like rutting stags and treat the audience to a range of emotions. Is there a greater fool than someone in love? "Is it not too dark under this tree? Here we cannot see how happy we are." Two master actors tumble lightheartedly through this courtly love story, in which threat is never far away either. Pelleas: You are never going to see me again. Melisande: I will always see you. I will always look out for you. Pelleas: I will be so far away that you can never see me again. Melisande: For a very short time I was your world. What am I now? When Toen Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, the jury stated that it was primarily for his plays. “Characterized by a wealth of imagination and poetic refinement.” Dimitri Leue retranslated the text of the Ghent native from French. The romantic sighing and repetitive flirting with danger sound even sharper in Dutch. "I am not touching you. Maybe just a little bit with my eyes. But my fingers are not watching along." Pelleas & Melisande is such a wondrous fairy tale for adults about a forbidden love affair, jealousy, and melancholy. The text inspired many composers: Debussy, Schönberg, Sibelius, and Fauré set this symbolist play to music. Antoon Offeciers adapts Debussy's music and gives it a jazzy sound and feel. The music is performed live by Antoon, Tim Vandenbergh, and Karel De Backer. Costumes are stitched together with silk thread by Lynn Wauters. Golaud: I am looking into your eyes. Do you happen to close them? Melisande: Mostly at night. Credits Spel: Rashif El Kaoui & Frank Focketyn, Live music: Antoon Offeciers, Tim Vandenbergh, Karel De Backer, Text, direction & scenography: Dimitri Leue, Musical composition: Antoon Offeciers, Costumes: Lynn Wauters - Atelier Utilisé, Reels and trailers: Arn Vanwijmeersch, Technical production: Sonista, Layout: Sofi Van Hauwe / Nico Goossens Een production of Leue vzw, Realized with the support of the tax shelter measure of the Belgian legislator via Flanders Tax Shelter and CC Binder Puursam and CC De Meermin Waasmunster