Acting on the crisis: silent mass takes centre stage
Music theatre company Braakland/ZheBilding is partway through its triptych about the economic crisis: Greed, Fear and Hope
The symbolic 99% find their voice
It’s raining at the end of Angst. “The prosperity of today is worth nothing since it undermines the prosperity of tomorrow,” says an innocent-looking girl. It is said that truth comes from the mouths of fools and children, and a committed playwright such as Devillé knows that.
As in Hebzucht (Greed), the first part of the crisis triptych by Leuven-based theatre group Braakland/ZheBilding, a young girl takes the role of narrator and helps to make his point. The fact that the director’s own daughter Emma or a child of one of his actors speaks the words makes the link with the next generation even closer.
In only a few sentences, the girl explains what’s at stake: “If the economy loses its purpose, only growth remains as a direction, and that aimlessness, and growth, and growth will lead to desperation and fear because those who only grow, but do not move and do not look back or forward, swell, gain weight, sit still, are old and have nothing to say, since the debts that the fatties had accumulated were not out of lack but out of excess and immoderateness and lead us straight to moral bankruptcy… For the prosperity of today is worth nothing because it undermines the prosperity of tomorrow.”
In the case of Emma you can take these words quite literally, explains Devillé: “When she was born, around 9/11, my parents-in-law put some money aside in an investment fund for her. The banker told my father-in-law that in 10 years’ time the fund should be worth four times more. But instead of growing, it shrank to half of the initial investment. Thatcher once said: ‘I want my money back’. I think my child has every right to say the same.”
Making fools of ourselves
In both Hebzucht and Angst the hope lies in the fact that the child tries to make sense of the world around her and, hopefully, will make better choices. Yes, Hoop (Hope) will be the name of the third, yet to be written, part of the triptych.
It’s significant how people are first asked to give their votes and then are completely neglected later on
So the role of the child is clear, but who are the fools in the play? One could suggest it’s the political class, meeting, discussing and dictating at the front of the stage. There’s a prime minister, played by Tom Van Bauwel, who has to deal with conflicting interests: Europe, the country, his party and his voters, waiting for payback time at the next elections.
It’s making him not only nervous but, worse, immobile. His finance minister, a very convincing Sara Vertongen, isn’t too much help either. And the stringent European commissioner Tina “There Is No Alternative” Krimp (Dutch actress Simone Milsdochter) is his worst nightmare: dictating countries with debts to economise, sending technocrats in, hollowing out democratic procedures.
A smooth and very casual Michaël Pas plays the smartest guy in the room, a man who has a history in commercial banking and now works for the European Central Bank. He’s the only character whose mood is not affected by the crisis, brilliantly suggested by eating a bag of crisps while making the most profound economic analysis and saying things such as: “S&P, who’s still believing these people?”.
But none of them, not even the idealist making soup for the poor, can you call a fool with a monopoly on truth, because they are all programmed by a system.
A voiceless mass
The real fools are us: the audience, the silent mass, the 99%. “They are the real victims of what was or is happening,” says Devillé. “I already wanted to bring them on stage in Hebzucht, as a form of resistance. Now I’m doing it.”
We are not the smarty-pants telling the people what to do
Practically, this means that during every show a group of extras will join the actors on stage, in silence. Half of them will travel by bus from Leuven or Hasselt, where the co-producing theatre group De Queeste is based, the other half is gathered by the local theatre.
The extras watch in silence how decisions about their lives are taken. “It’s significant how people are first asked to give their votes and then are completely neglected later on,” says Devillé. “Angst works with this tension.” For Van Bauwel, who as prime minister feels the eyes piercing in his back, it’s a fine balance between acting and commenting on the world.
“Because also the actors are part of the 99%!” says Van Bauwel. “We are not the smarty-pants telling the people what to do. We say it’s a complex matter, and everyone had better take responsibility. That’s the biggest force behind the play.”
Angst (in Dutch)
Until 16 March
Across Flanders
www.braakland.be
Photo by Freek Verdonckt
