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La Reprise Histoire(s) du theatre (I)

 
Paul Fisher Cockburn Review by Paul Fisher Cockburn 3 Published: 8 Aug 2019 The Lyceum Show Dates: 1 Jan 1970-5 Aug 2019

Theatre-making manifestos always make me wary, in part because I'm inherently suspicious of portentous artists in any field: "The aim is not to depict the real, but to make the representation itself real," says the Ghent Manifesto—er, what?! That said, the results of such "manifestos" can create work that's emotionally powerful, technically inventive and genuinely diverse—delightfully challenging both the "traditional" ways things are done, and the kinds of people actually doing them.

On occasions, the mood can be quite light, although it's a dark humour.

La Reprise – "The Repetition" – is about the brutal, homophobic murder of Ihsane Jarfi in the Belgian city of Liège in 2012. The production has a traditional five-act structure, but in most other respects is far from typical: the first half, for example, puts the theatrical process centre-stage, including the audition process through which three of the roles were given to non-professional performers. On occasions, the mood can be quite light, although it's a dark humour. Liège, the former Steel capital of Europe, is now a city of the unemployed: brutal murder a perfect metaphor of its decline.

The core of the play, devised by director Milo Rau and cast, is the titular repetition; an enactment of the events leading to Jarfi's abduction from outside a gay club, and the violent car drive that eventually led to the edge of town where he was beaten and kicked to death. Unfolding pretty much in real time, shown through a mixture of live performance and video, it's understandably tough to watch—even though it's necessarily choreographed in a way that’s so clearly dependent on the "victim" selling the impact of each blow by their reactions, as was explained earlier on.

We're told that Jarfi's grieving mother was unhappy with how her son's life and death was put on public display during the subsequent trial, and I can't help wonder what her reaction was to the idea of this play. Sold to us as a means of witnessing and remembering Jarfi’s life and death, it's wrapped in intelligent theatrical philosophy, but still strikes me as hurtfully voyeuristic and focused too much on death rather than life.

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The Blurb:

In April 2012, Ihsane Jarfi got talking to a group of young men in a car outside a gay club in Liège. Two weeks later, he was found dead at the edge of a wood. He had been tortured and violently murdered.

La Reprise is an audacious piece of investigative theatre, both a meticulous examination of Jarfi’s brutal murder and an enquiry into the origins of theatrical tragedy itself. Milo Rau, one of the most compelling and controversial figures in contemporary European theatre, constructs an uncompromising theatrical documentary around this savage killing that shocked Belgium.

With six professional and non-professional actors, La Reprise sifts through the details of Jarfi’s murder, bringing together testimonies from the young man’s family, former partner, lawyers and even one of his killers. It asks what pushes people to become murderers, and how poverty and deprivation in a post-industrial city can lead inexorably to despair and violence. 

La Reprise is a revelatory theatrical experience, both an unflinching examination of our darkest impulses and an exploration of the complex, cathartic power of theatre.

Download the programme here

Milo Rau Concept & DirectorMilo Rau & Ensemble TextEva-Maria Bertschy Researcher & DramaturgAnton Lukas Set & Costume DesignerMaxime Jennes & Dimitri Petrovic VideoJurgen Kolb Lighting DesignerJens Baudisch Sound Design & Technical DirectorMascha Euchner-Martinez & Eva-Karen Tittmann Production Management 

Creatives on TourJim Goossens-Bara, Maxime Jennes & Moritz von Dungern VideoSylvain Faye & Sebastian König LightingPierre-Olivier Boulant & Jens Baudisch Sound François Pacco Subtitles Mascha Euchner-Martinez Tour Management

Cast includes Sara De Bosschere, Suzy Cocco, Sébastien Foucault, Fabian Leenders, Johan Leysen, Tom Adjibi

Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin, Pro Helvetia, Ernst Göhner Stiftung and Kulturförderung Kanton St. Gallen

More information about some of the artists:

NTGentWebsite | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

International Institute of Political MurderWebsite | Facebook | Youtube