Quartett

“Ich bin ein sterbendes Konversationslexikon, jedes Wort ein Klumpen Blut.”

With Quartett the German author Heiner Müller delivered a masterpiece. He re-cut the 18th century epistolary novel Les liaisons dangereuses into a sinister game, in which the love couple Valmont and Merteuil take care of each other in a feverish ritual. They re-enact their injuries and escapades in role plays, in which words and sex are weapons in an old 'well played' game.

Quartett takes Heiner Müller's text as a starting point for a podacst. The sound space that opens up is a dark, associative flow of text and music. An auditory landscape in which the figures Valmont and Merteuil emerge in a game in which they drag their victims, Cécile and Madame de Tourvel, into a self-destructive vortex.

With music by Roy Orbison, Olivier Messiaen, Franz Schubert, Francis Poulenc, Anton Webern, Iggy Pop and electronic compositions by Jo Thielemans, this podcast drags you into an apocalyptic playground full of longing and fear.

Credits

• Direction • Wouter Van Looy
• Text Adaptation • Wouter Van Looy
• Vocals • Naomi Beeldens / Isaak Duerinck / Ewout Lehoucq / Katrin Lohmann / Les Âmes Perdues
• Play • Naomi Beeldens / Isaak Duerinck / Ewout Lehoucq / Katrin Lohmann / Les Âmes Perdues
• Electronical compositions • Jo Thielemans
• montage • Jo Thielemans
• Cast • Naomi Beeldens / Isaak Duerinck / Ewout Lehoucq / Les Âmes Perdues / Katrin Lohmann