La Maison des cerfs

The Deer House

third part of the trilogy
Sad Face | Happy Face

For the last ten years, the deer has been the emblem of Jan Lauwers' troupe. The Deer House is therefore first of all and literally, the Needcompany who take us on tour with them. A daily life made up of rehearsals, performances, but also everything that a group goes through: tensions, love affairs, arguments, reconciliations, complicities, discussions... The deer is also that tracked animal, game appreciated for its meat and its antlers. Deer are killed throughout the world and in Lauwers' show as well: one day, the dancer Tijen Lawton learns that her brother, a journalist, has just been killed in Kosovo. This is the starting point for the performance: with this tragic news, the world's brutality, the madness of conflicts in Europe springs onto the stage. This violence, at such near range, and the questions that accompany it on the circulation and staging of information greatly distress the troupe, which itself is presenting a play on history and its fits of rage. The deer is lastly a creature of the woods and The Deer House can be understood as a kind of refuge. A deep forest in which the mythic animal gradually takes possession of bodies and minds, in which the members of the Needcompany are transformed into legendary beings, in which strange ceremonials of a return to primitive nature are imposed. The Deer House is therefore simultaneously a troupe on tour, the violence of a world in performance and a universe of tales, but also and especially the sum of what Jan Lauwers and the Needcompany know how to present best to us: a theatre of the collective, of brief moments of existence, of shared feelings, which is turned upside-down by the events, and visited by the fantastic. ADB

text, direction and scenography: Jan Lauwers
music: Hans Petter Dahl, Maarten Seghers
lighting: Ken Hioco, Koen Raes
sound: Dré Schneider
costumes: Lot Lemm
direction assistance: Elke Janssens
with: Grace Ellen Barkey, Anneke Bonnema, Hans Petter Dahl, Viviane De Muynck, Misha Downey, Julien Faure, Benoît Gob, Tijen Lawton, Yumiko Lawton, Maarten Seghers, Inge Van Bruystegem
production: Luc Galle

production: Needcompany et Festival de Salzbourg.
coproduction: Schauspielhaus Zürich, Pact Zollverein (Essen)
avec la collaboration: de deSingel (Anvers) et du Kaaitheater (Bruxelles)
avec le soutien: des Autorités flamandes