Mrs. Bob is part of a series of challenging confrontations between Music Theater De Kolonie and major theatrical personalities. De Kolonie always works with original material, both textual and musical.
Artist in residence Peter De Graef once again pulled a clever script out of his hat with his signature style: sharp-witted and incisive. Mrs. Bob is a woman with secrets. She has built a spectacular career from fragments, as a kind of revenge. In a ruthless climb to the top, all means are fair game, and she delivers a few bold statements that are completely at odds with the #MeToo debate.
Let's be honest, women who build careers by catering to men and wrapping them around their finger—it happens. With a razor-sharp blade, the author dissects the worlds of high finance, democracy, and media. The stigmatization of the poor saps. Money is still the best protection against discrimination! As a Pharma lobbyist, she becomes Mrs. Bob, so to speak, stinking rich in her sleep. "Do I take a plane... or buy one myself?" or "who drives around in the same Rolls Royce for two years?", with such statements she flaunts her considerable status.
Bo Spaenck, the founder of Music Theater De Kolonie, composed beautiful, at times spine-tingling music, performed live by himself and violist Marc Tooten. Music that supports and propels Tania Van der Sanden in continuous interaction. In the performance she was coached by Sam Bogaerts, a man with an impressive theater background, who can hardly be accused of creative indecision. Together they refined the character and distilled an impressive and intriguing Mrs. Bob with a unique dynamic. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Artists from different disciplines create an iron-strong performance in subtle, exuberant, or tormented dialogue.
Tania Van der Sanden <> Mrs. Bob
The two musicians form a sort of trinity with the performer and took their places on a raised platform, stage left and stage right, surrounded by fine gauze, a diffuse presence. Between both cylinders strides a woman with mysterious glamour, dressed entirely in emerald green: haute couture dress, lush hat (a link to Medusa?), high heels, earrings, rings, necklace, green nail polish. With her full, deep, and warm voice, master storyteller Tania Van der Sanden immediately captivates the audience. A voice that can caress like velvet but can just as easily hook and tear with barbs.
The performance is full of contradictions: warm, wry, fierce, challenging. Without hesitation, she displays her entire journey. An actress with presence. The stage is her habitat. Her body language evokes an octopus that grabs everything within reach with its tentacles. What must be thoroughly consumed is the moment. As the only woman in a basket of powerful men, she learns the ruthless tricks to climb higher. The hunger for more power and wealth clouds vision and undermines judgment... Until she's told she has only a few weeks to live. In a public confession, she clears the air about something that has weighed on her for years. The symbols of wealth and prosperity fade away, until she's left in her shirt. Her great love turned out to be one great disillusionment, and she took cold-blooded revenge.
The music adds rich nuance to all these emotional states, adding the dimension that cannot be captured in words. Sometimes it rages like a hurricane or flutters playfully and cheerfully like a butterfly through the space. The entire staging is extremely understated, but that's precisely its strength. The text is delicious, the text projection, performance, and singing by Tania van der Sanden is superb, the surrounding music completes the picture. A performance that captivates from beginning to end.
- WHAT: Mrs. Bob
- WHO: Music Theater De Kolonie and HERMESensemble, text Peter De Graef, performance Tania Van der Sanden, music Bo Spaenck and Marc Tooten
- WHERE & WHEN: October 3 at CC 't Bolwerk Vilvoorde
- PHOTOS: © Jan Marchand, © Pat Verbruggen, Herman Houbrechts
