Les Antigones
tg STAN
Dates
Tickets
Venue
Time & Date
Information
Tickets
28 €
Concs 17 €
Language
In French with Greek surtitles
Introduction
The Flemish tg STAN company focus on unmediated communication with the audience. In “Les Antigones”, they contrast two versions of the Antigone myth—by Jean Cocteau and Jean Anouilh.
Photo: Bernaded Dexters
Toneelspelersgezelschap [tg] STAN is a company of Flemish actors which applies collective principles both to the process of reworking dramatic texts and to the presentation of postdramatic staged compositions. The company prioritizes actor presence, unmediated communication with the audience, and the second element in its acronym: S(top) T(hinking) A(bout) N(ames).
In “Les Antigones” (2001), tg STAN contrast two contemporary versions of the Antigone myth by Jean Cocteau (1922) and Jean Anouilh (1944) respectively. The two represent different approaches to the issues raised by the tragedy’s characters.
tg STAN entirely reject each and every desire to embody or transcend roles. Motivated by the hypothesis that ancient audiences knew the myths before they saw them on stage, tg STAN relate the myths, stressing the elements they consider important, before enacting them. Adopting a post-Brechtian approach, they remain unsure of their roles, which they mumble rather than recite as they struggle to understand them—a process made more difficult still by the performance being in French, which is not the actors’ mother tongue.
The result: Gradually transformed into witnesses to the unfolding of a mental process which starts with the play and is driven by the actors’ stance towards it, the audience rediscovers the well-known myth. Ultimately, the actors’ refusal to identify even with their art —they employ the simplest possible means— brings the audience into unmediated contact with the emotional power the texts, myths and impulses of actors and creators once had.
In “Les Antigones,” tg STAN return to the simplest means of theatrical expression. Without a hint of reformist rhetoric, they mold an essentially theatrical discourse on the cusp between the dramatic and post-dramatic idioms.
Toneelspelersgezelschap STAN was founded by four actors who graduated together from the Antwerp Conservatoire in 1989. Jolente De Keersmaeker, Damiaan De Schrijver, Waas Gramser and Frank Vercruyssen did not wish to join any existing companies, in which they seemed to perceive only an excessive aestheticism, unworldly formal experiments and the hand of (all too) authoritative directors. They wanted to place the emphasis on themselves, as actors, on their own abilities and manifest failings. They wished to blow up the illusion and to focus on pure acting –if necessary in mutual contradiction–, on a highly personal and rigorous commitment to the character and the story he/she has to tell. After a few productions Waas Gramser left the group and Sara De Roo joined it. Thomas Walgrave became its regular scenographer.
Two keywords characterise Tg STAN: ‘actor-oriented’ and ‘undogmatic’. The undogmatic aspect is reflected in the name – S(top) T(hinking) A(bout) N(ames) – as well as in the repertoire. Their confrontational working method prompts them to acquaint the most diverse audiences (preferably foreign ones, too) with their work, sometimes in several languages. In addition to the original, Dutch, version a great number of their pieces are also performed in English and/or French. This offered a new sounding board to the group: when performing in another language the words acquire a different meaning. Moreover they created several plays in a foreign language and in another country: "Point Blank" and "Berenice" were made in Lisbon (Portugal) and "One 2 Life" in Oakland, California (USA) – all of them in English. "Les Antigones", created in Toulouse (France), was STAN's first such venture in French.
After performance talk with tg STAN
Saturday 8 January 2011
23:00 | Upper Stage
Moderated by: Katia Arfara, Head of Theater and Dance Department at the Onassis Stegi
Language: English/Greek
A seminar/workshop led by tg STAN: “Α theater without a director: how does an actors’ collective work?”
Saturday 8 January 2011
11:00-15:00 | 5th floor - Young Theater Workshop | 20 €
The Belgian theater company offers a one-day workshop exploring their philosophy, methodology, practice: tg STAN is an actor-orientated theater company. The actors do everything themselves: they don't work with directors, dramaturgists. The emphasis is set on the independence of the actor, how the actor speaks, works with texts, manages repertoire.
Addressed to: Drama students, professional actors, directors
Requirements: Participants should have a functional knowledge of English
Reservations: Email: education@onassis.org
