The Channel / Crossing Borders
On a beach near Calais a young refugee prepares himself to swim across the Channel, towards his new future. On the English side, on the chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, a woman bids life goodbye.
The new text by author Gaea Schoeters is mirrored by a recently recovered Shakespeare-text, in which the sheriff of London tries to calm a mob of citizens who want to lynch a group of migrants. The scene shows scary resemblances to the current refugee crisis. Migration is a phenomenon of all times, and so is our primary reaction to it. Each organism repels what is foreign to it: the strangers have to go.
Composer Annelies Van Parys uses the Shakespeare-text as a libretto for a cycle of songs, which set the refugee theme in a historical perspective. The soprano is also the intermediary between past and present, audience and play. Via other spoken Shakespeare fragments she sets the story in a different perspective, turning the personal stories into a sharp reflection of society, both in the 16th century and today – because the similarities are, alas, striking.
Production:
Produced by Antwerp Queer Arts Festival in coproduction with Muziektheater Transparant, Het Geluid Maastricht and Opera Days Rotterdam.
Location | Dates | Hour | |
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Theater aan Zee (Oostende) +32 59 33 90 00 www.theateraanzee.be | 3/8/2017 4/8/2017 5/8/2017 | 20:30 20:30 20:30 | |
Antwerp Queer Arts Festival (Antwerp) www.queerarts.be | 11/8/2017 | 20:00 | |
Theater aan het Vrijthof (Maastricht) +31 43 350 55 20 www.theateraanhetvrijthof.nl | 1/10/2017 | 15:30 | |
NTGent (Gent) +32 9 225 12 02 www.ntgent.be | 6/2/2018 7/2/2018 | 20:00 20:00 | |
Xaveriuscollege Antwerpen (Borgerhout) 03 235 88 32 | 26/2/2018 27/2/2018 | 13:30 13:30 | |
CC Ter Dilft Bornem (Bornem) +32 3 890 69 30 https://www.terdilft.be | 27/4/2018 | 20:30 | |