10 years ago, Studio 100 in the Nekkerhal in Mechelen unveiled a production in which moving stands were introduced that could zoom in and out on the action. Now they go in all directions. You feel like a fly circling around the action, so you experience everything from the front row.2014, it was exactly 100 years since the First World War broke out. The military conflict spread like an oil stain. A storm raged over Europe. The war brought large parts of the population to despair. They gathered their possessions and joined the growing stream of refugees, desperate civilians. The production opens with these chaotic images. Immediately you are confronted with the facts. Every war is a tragic battlefield. Like a maelstrom, it tears a society apart.
W.W.I. and W.W.II have an echo. They keep reverberating. Hundreds of books have been written about them and films made in which the madness and also the heroism came to the fore. At the first staging we lived in peace mode and the motto 'Never again war' was paramount. Now Europe lives under the threat of some power-hungry leaders. Every day we are confronted with shocking images: we see how Ukraine and Palestine are massacred. The chilling horror of war! Sometimes you almost feel guilty that we live in peace and safety!
As time goes by
In this hybrid production Frank Van Laecke once again demonstrates his mastery. The drive to transform a script into expression. '14-'18, an impressive production full of emotion, ingenuity and craftsmanship.
The war threat has never been closer. The world out there is a gruesome theatre. He largely retained the script from before with shifts in emphasis. Goes deeper into people's disorientation. The concept was technically fine-tuned in a hallucinatory production. Allard Blom provided the lyrics. Music: Dirk Brossé performed by the Filharmonie. Tijl Dauwe creative director motion and assistant director and an impressive array of behind-the-scenes workers ensured a gripping production. This with the commitment of body and soul of a 100-strong intergenerational, multi-purpose cast both musically, dancing and theatrically.
Cinematic narrative
A scenario is like a fragile structure with narrative threads that Van Laecke ingeniously connects with each other. In this remake, he combines old and new elements and insights with an arsenal of skills. With a sharp plane, all superfluous elements have been cut away. A narrative on the borderline between reality and fiction. He fuses contrasts together: the horror of war versus peaceful idyllic places, the naive cowboy and Indian play of children versus the horror of war. Seeks out the limits: birth and death, despair and hope, bravado and vulnerability, forgiveness and courage. They determine the rhythm of the production. There is singing about passion, mildness, retaliation. This in an indefinable chemistry of pain, love, pride, resilience, struggle and sparks of joy.
Friendship
The essence of the story revolves around four young friends bound together in an uncompromising commitment. Four completely different characters. Jan played by Jelle Cleymans; his younger brother Kamiel, Remi De Smet; his best friend Fons, Jonas Van Geel and then there is Albert the farmer's son with unbridled bravado which Niels Destadsbader gives his all for. In the pool of misery he constantly provides the light note. They go to war convinced that it will be over quickly. But it turns out differently. They are chased by sergeant De Decker, embodied by Peter Van De Velde. He is often cast as brute force. In this role he also gets to tap into other layers. Every human being is helpless at a certain moment. He in turn is directed by a general. A role embodied by Marc Peeters.
Facts
Crucial moments from history are brought to the screen: the opening of the locks in Veurne Ambacht that flooded the area. In Poperinge you can still see the death cell where deserters spent their last sleepless nights. The chaos of war strikes Kamiel with complete cramping and disorientation. He does stupid things and is made an example of. A defenseless Kamiel appears before the court martial and is sentenced to death by firing squad. Completely alone on the immense stage he sings an ode to life: his hands are made to give and to make music, not to kill. He is executed. His brother Jan is broken with grief. Immediately after that, Van Laecke switches to a lavish folk wedding feast. Musically too, a whole palette of feelings is tapped into. Months away from home, Jan sings from the rubble a song full of longing for his wife Anna, played by Sandrine Van Handenhoven. A beautiful moving duet. Their longing for each other vibrates through the space. An emotional sound projection, where subtle nuances and vocal shifts contribute to the refinement of the performance. The warm embrace of sounds leads to an elevated state of emotion inextricably linked with music. In the production, sometimes you wait until a sound loses its last resonance in the silence, but the music also lets wave after wave of notes and emotions sound and is of a restrained intensity.
Maximum effects
Van Laecke creates an image of frenzy. Explosions pound and thunder words away. A reflection of the madness of war. In a snap of the fingers a life can be over. One moment of carelessness and a sniper snuffs out the flame of life. In the immense emptiness of the stage the director illustrates that everyone stands alone with their grief. The women give voice to their loss and long for their son, husband, friend. Lost in the immense space they are caught one by one in the beam of a spotlight and sing each one word. Words that string together into a song. The men on the barricade face the same fate. Even the sergeant, the loudmouth for whom discipline and order come first, turns out to be a man with feelings. In an unguarded moment he asks, begs a nurse to hold him. He too needs affection, the warmth of comforting arms around him.
We follow life in the trenches. Just before the Christmas Offensive was to begin, a thin voice rings out from no man's land. A German soldier sings haltingly Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. Jan cannot contain his curiosity and climbs over the protection of the sandbags. The sergeant calls him back but he ignores his order. A lonely figure in a desolate landscape pours his heart into a peaceful song. From all sides soldiers hesitantly stream in and sing along in their mother tongue: Dutch, French and English. They reach out to each other. A gripping scene. They are called back by the general, an iron-fisted officer of the old school.
Reluctantly they obey the order. Only Jan resists. The sergeant manages to convince him but remains himself in no man's land. The moving stands close him in. As a spectator you are on edge. In a moment of introspection he goes through a crisis of conscience in an overwhelming realization. All his frustration and helplessness erupt like an eruption. A catharsis. Peter Van De Velde digs deep. His deep, raw voice cuts to the bone. A song that sticks to your ribs. He stops using young lives as cannon fodder in the fight, soaking the earth with their blood. If only there had been a ceasefire. Hell breaks loose again. For him it's enough. Determined, he offers himself as a target and is ruthlessly cut down. Machine gun fire, explosions, a tank ploughs through the earth. Around an explosion soldiers fall in slow motion. Hallucinatory images. Jan too is hit in the crossfire and dies in the arms of his friend Fons. In a grey, misty haze dozens of crosses stand on the battlefield. Two meagre branches bound together. A lasting reminder of the thousands of victims. The whole thing floats on an explosive mix of emotions and energies. A distinctive sound palette sometimes caressing and velvety soft and at other moments brutally incisive. '14-'18 ends with the euphoria of liberation. Fons, the only survivor of the foursome, struggles to pick up the thread of ordinary life again.
War Epic
A war epic brought to the screen in a fascinating way in a succession of impressive solo and mass scenes. Almost two hours immersed in the massacre of war makes you silent. Everything is truly squeezed out. Strong across the board. A gripping and moving interpretation by the main cast, truly multi-talented, testifying to emotional maturity. Finding the right tone in such a story is balancing on a tightrope. Overkill would make it maudlin or ridiculous. The performers were well guided by the director. The right tone is impressively maintained from beginning to end. Not monotonous but with subtle variations and shadings. Impressed by the acting talent, craftsmanship and passion of the entire group on and off stage, the audience remained silent for a few seconds after the show, deeply moved, but then jumped up and let loose in an overwhelming and prolonged applause.
'14-'18 a skillfully polished diamond. A heartbreaking protest, a statement against the senselessness of war.
