Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere [Belgium]
"Pleasant Island"

Theater

©Bea Borgers
©Indra Struyen
Depleted of its resources through endless capitalist exploitation, what future awaits the “Pleasant Island”? Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere present a new form of documentary theater performed entirely through a smartphone.

Emerging artist duo Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere are gaining traction as new innovators of documentary theater. Without uttering a single word on stage, they use an iPhone to bring the reality of Naulu, a small Pacific island-state, to life. Once described as the richest nation in the world due to phosphate mining, the island-state was stripped dry of all natural resources and left to file for bankruptcy. In exchange for large sums of financial aid, it now serves as a detention camp for Australia’s asylum-seekers.
Depleted of ecological, economic, and humanitarian means, this “pleasant island” foreshadows a potential encroaching future. With their ability to reveal the tragedy of other societies through simple movements of their fingers, the two artists assume both the superiority and violence that come with their position as outsiders. Within this framework, what else might they summon to the stage beyond devastating reality?

Profile

Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere
A unit of two young theatre- makers whose work is based on concrete situations, events or places that stand for a broader theme. Silke completed the drama programme at the KASK School of Arts in Ghent in 2013. Hannes obtained his degree in theatre studies at Ghent University one year before that. Since then, they have been developing a strong interest in documentary elements in theatre. Their first piece, Mining Stories (2016), represented a next step in this research, as they explored the impact of a recent mining disaster in the south of Brazil, the region where Silke grew up. Mining Stories (2016) was awarded with the Zürcher Theater Spektakel Patronage Prize in 2018.

©Bart Dewaele

Dates

March 5th [Thu] /19:00*Talk (after the performance), Moderator|Kyoko Iwaki (Theatre and Performance Lecturer at University of Antwerp)
March 6th [Fri] /19:00

Performance times

approx. 70 min.

Venue

Libra Hall
1F Minato Park Shibaura, 1-16-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0023

How to Participate

Booking essential. Show general admission pass on entry.
Buy Pass

Language

English (with Japanese subtitles)

Credit

By & With|Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere
Dramaturge|Dries Douibi
Technical|Anne Meeussen, Piet Depoortere, Benjamin Verbrugge
Sound Mixing|Lieven Dousselaere
Production|CAMPO arts centre
Co-production|Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Spring Festival Utrecht, Beursschouwburg, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, Veem House For Performance, Theaterfestival SPIELART München, De Brakke Grond
Residencies|Beursschouwburg, De Grote Post, KAAP, Kunstencentrum Buda, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, LOD, STUK, Veem House for Performance
With the support of Vlaamse gemeenschapscommissie, KAAP
Many thanks to all conversation partners in Nauru

Japanese subtitles|Fumiko Toda
Interpreter|Kanoko Tamura (Art Translators Collective)