Billy's Violence
© Maarten Vanden Abeele

Text Victor Afung Lauwers
Music Maarten Seghers
Direction, scenography, costumes Jan Lauwers
With Nao Albet, Grace Ellen Barkey, Gonzalo Cunill, Martha Gardner, Romy Louise Lauwers, Juan Navarro, Maarten Seghers, Meron Verbelen

Dramaturgy Elke Janssens, Erwin Jans
Lighting design Ken Hioco
Technical and production Marjolein Demey, Ken Hioco, Tijs Michiels
Costumes and props assistant, surtitles Nina Lopez Le Galliard, Charlotte Seeligmüller

Production Needcompany
Co-production Festival Grec de Barcelona, Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Teatro Español y Naves del Español en Matadero, Teatro Central (Sevilla), Les Salins - Scène Nationale de Martigues, Cultuurcentrum Brugge
Tax Shelter funding BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance NV/SA
Produced with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government and the Flemish Government

Needcompany ยท Billy's Violence

For Billy's Violence, Victor Afung Lauwers researched the ten tragedies of Shakespeare and rewrote them into violently loving, intimate dialogues in which the woman is the central focus, stripped of any historical reference or anecdotal content.

Erwin Jans: 'Shakespeare may have never been so brutally and provocatively stripped. Obscene, hard and poetic. Words. Words. Words. But there are hardly any words left. Only some highlights. Recognizable poetry - Shakespeare quotes - that flashes like lightning against a dark night and disappears just as quickly. Just long enough to recognise the landscape, but too short to find its way.

When the curtain falls over Shakespeare's tragedies, order is restored. Over a mountain of corpses, the calm of the equilibrium descends once more. In what precedes this - the actual play - a departure from all moral rules is staged, a deep rent in the social fabric, an excess of aggression and violence. Is this excess only required to more convincingly demonstrate the need for the law? Or does the violence contain its own insight? Its own truth? And what might that be?'

 

Shakespeare is the most read and performed writer the world has ever known. And yet many of the bard’s plays are virtually unperformable due to their violence, gruesomeness, racism and misogyny. What does violence in art mean in today’s world? Why do we enjoy watching it so much? Is violence viewed differently today than it was in the 16th-17th century?

 

Jan Lauwers: 'Shakespeare wanted an audience in his theatre, but in the streets of London there were dog fights and torture. Women were being burnt in the squares, public executions took place. These were large-scale festivities that brought many people together on the streets and Shakespeare had to use sex and violence, among other things, to lure the audience to his theatre. That is very interesting. It is not dissimilar to Quentin Tarantino. Is it gratuitous, entertaining, or is it necessary or impossible? Quentin Tarantino is a choirboy by comparison to the sheer brutality evoked by Shakespeare.

I am increasingly convinced that we need to find a different way of thinking which shows that all people are against violence. We think that everyone is bad, but that is not true. The majority is not violent; there is great solidarity. If we go back in history - and I keep coming across Shakespeare and his tragedies - then maybe we can find something.'

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Text Victor Afung Lauwers
Music Maarten Seghers
Direction, scenography, costumes Jan Lauwers
With Nao Albet, Grace Ellen Barkey, Gonzalo Cunill, Martha Gardner, Romy Louise Lauwers, Juan Navarro, Maarten Seghers, Meron Verbelen

Dramaturgy Elke Janssens, Erwin Jans
Lighting design Ken Hioco
Technical and production Marjolein Demey, Ken Hioco, Tijs Michiels
Costumes and props assistant, surtitles Nina Lopez Le Galliard, Charlotte Seeligmüller

Production Needcompany
Co-production Festival Grec de Barcelona, Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Teatro Español y Naves del Español en Matadero, Teatro Central (Sevilla), Les Salins - Scène Nationale de Martigues, Cultuurcentrum Brugge
Tax Shelter funding BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance NV/SA
Produced with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government and the Flemish Government

Tour

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July 2021
08 JulBarcelona ESTeatre Nacional de Catalunya Premiere
09 JulBarcelona ESTeatre Nacional de Catalunya
10 JulBarcelona ESTeatre Nacional de Catalunya
11 JulBarcelona ESTeatre Nacional de Catalunya
16 JulRibadavia ESMostra internacional de Teatro
August 2021
08 AugGdańsk PLThe Shakespeare Festival
September 2021
23 SepMadrid ESNaves del Español en Matadero
24 SepMadrid ESNaves del Español en Matadero
25 SepMadrid ESNaves del Español en Matadero
26 SepMadrid ESNaves del Español en Matadero
October 2021
29 OctBrussels BEKaaitheater Premiere
30 OctBrussels BEKaaitheater
November 2021
12 NovSevilla ESTeatro Central
13 NovSevilla ESTeatro Central
17 NovGranada ESTeatro Alhambra
February 2022
01 FebMartigues FRThéâtre des Salins Premiere
10 FebBruges BECC Brugge
11 FebBruges BECC Brugge
March 2022
13 MarValladolid ESTeatro Calderón
18 MarGhent BENTGent
19 MarGhent BENTGent
September 2022
13 SepBolzano ITFestival Transart
January 2023
17 JanChambéry FRMalraux. scène nationale Chambéry Savoie
18 JanChambéry FRMalraux. scène nationale Chambéry Savoie
23 JanAmiens FRMaison de la Culture d'Amiens
March 2023
18 MarAntwerp BEToneelhuis
19 MarAntwerp BEToneelhuis
June 2023
14 JunAarhus DKILT-Festival
July 2023
14 JulVienna ATImPulsTanz
January 2024
20 JanRoeselare BECC De Spil
June 2024
28 JunBarcelona ESTeatre Lliure / Grec festival
30 JunBarcelona ESTeatre Lliure / Grec festival Double bill
February 2025
26 FebLeuven BEStadsschouwburg Leuven Double bill
March 2025
05 MarSofia BGToplo Centrala Double bill
07 MarSofia BGToplo Centrala Double bill
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