Josse De Pauw
An actor for the theatre and the cinema, a short story writer and a playwright, a director, a dramatist, a librettist, and a dramaturge, Josse de Pauw is all that and more. In 1977 he co-founded, along with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Jan Lauwers, the Radeis collective, which would be at the forefront of a revolution in the world of Flemish theatre by leaving behind the dark and confined spaces of theatre houses to play in public spaces and take part in people's daily lives. Their performances often substitute bodies and gestures for words, their elaborate slowness standing in contrast to the never-ending movement of the city. Starting in 1984, he began a series of collaborations (such as Schaamte, which would later become the Kaaitheater) and of solo works. He tirelessly moved from one stage to the next, refusing to ever “redo” something he'd done before, and wishing his different shows to remain forever in a sort of unfinished state. After adapting and playing in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, directed by Guy Cassiers, he turned to a series of interviews given by Hugo Claus to create The Claus Version. In the past few years he's worked primarily on what he calls “dramatic concerts,” such as The Soul of Termites and The Hanged, two LOD productions, in which music plays a central role as a partner to the text and the actors' performances.
