Bosch Beach

Music theatre with a sociocritical slant, to text by Dimitri Verhulst

Two men and a woman are swimming and sunbathing on the beach of Lampedusa. Ordinary holidaymakers, cushioned in the cocoon of a Club Med resort. They seduce each other, send post cards, and drink cocktails until late into the night. A hangover results in a minor existential crisis, which is salved with polonaises and more cocktails. To mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch, librettist Dimitri Verhulst, LOD composer Vasco Mendonça and LOD director Kris Verdonck take the idea of hell on earth as an angle from which to gaze through the eyes of Bosch at today’s world. What does the modern hell look like? Which place is nowadays the 'False Paradise’, the hidden hell on earth? Sunbathing on the beautiful beach of Lampedusa, while refugees are being washed ashore seems to come very close. In Bosch Beach the makers play with the ambiguity of this place and the impossible guilt issues it raises. The false paradise of the holiday resort and Bosch’s hell on earth flow together seamlessly.

This performance is not suitable for the under-16s.

performers

Vasco Mendonça: composition
Dimitri Verhulst: libretto (based on The Seven Deadly Sins by Hieronymus Bosch)
Kris Verdonck: direction
Kristof Van Baarle: dramaturgy
Rodrigo Ferreira (countertenor), Damien Pass (baritone) & Marion Tassou (soprano): song
Etienne Siebens: conductor
Asko|Schönberg: ensemble
Robbe Peeters, Simon Van Schuylenbergh, Astrid De Haes, Freek De Craecker: extras
Wim Hoogewerf: copyist
Marc Iglesias: choreography
Lies Colman: piano répétiteur
Eefje Wijnings, Andrea Kränzlin: costumes
Kris Verdonck, Eefje Wijnings: set design
A Two Dogs Company: realisation set design
Jan Van Gijsel: lighting design
Jan Van Gijsel & Nic Roseeuw: technical coordination
Bram De Cock, Diederik Suykens, Jan Van Gijsel, Chris Vanneste: technique
Isabel Vermeulen: production

production: LOD muziektheater
coproduction: Concertgebouw Brugge, A Two Dogs Company, Hieronymus Bosch 500 Foundation, House on Fire, Teatro Maria Matos, Kaaitheater, Asko|Schönberg, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian & Theater Mousonturm Frankfurt
in collaboration with Frankfurter Buchmesse 2016 (Flanders and the Netherlands as invited countries) & Klarafestival
with the support of the EU Culture Programme