A collaboration with TR Rotterdam
WArd/waRD would take over the TR Schouwburg Rotterdam for five days. At various places in the building there would be performances, lectures, conversations, films and music on the theme of memory loss. The corona virus threw a spanner in the works. The country went into lockdown and unfortunately we could no longer welcome an audience in the theater. Fortunately, we were able to show part of the program online.
photos Jordy Brada
Inside TR Schouwburg
Memory/Loss/Series in TR Schouwburg Rotterdam was meant to be a five day party. New versions of all performances from The Memory Loss Collection, a special concert by Memory Loss Collective, films, performances, talks, conversations, workshops and a masterclass.
But we also had surprises in store: the entire theater had become an exhibition space with the niches from Q61, the Loops of Behavior from the London Barbican project, the media wall in the foyer, there would be something to experience everywhere. A building full of memories. One day before kick-off, the contamination figures threw a spanner in the works. The threat became reality and the theater had to close its doors.
Ann Van den Broek walks with a cameraman once more past all the places we will never see.
Blueprint on Memory
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
If our memories make us who we are, then who are we if there are gaps in it? What happens when our memory falters? When memories are deliberately suppressed? Or disappear subconsciously? In Blueprint on Memory, the first creation in Van den Broek‘s project The Memory Loss Collection, the performers manifest various mental as well as physical elements of memory loss. Disorientation and confusion, repetitive patterns and behavior, uncoordinated movement and recognition loss fill the space.
In Blueprint on Memory video, live projections, music, spoken word and emotions intermingle and simultaneously create a whole. The performers control the visuals and the sound. They can manipulate them whenever they please. The actual blueprint on the floor puts a huge strain on their mental and physical memory. To discover patterns in the chaos. At the same time, the ability to hold on to memories diminishes.
“The symbolism is as a clear as it is gripping without once becoming sentimental for even one second. Especially people who have experienced dementia and Alzheimer’s firsthand will recognize plenty. Impressive and stirring movement theater.” (NRC Handelsblad ★★★★★)
Zooming in on Loss
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Zooming in on Loss is the second production in the triptych The Memory Loss Collection. Zooming in on Loss focuses on the internal struggle, loss and the relation between the individuals and their social environment. Rage and frustration, sadness and pain, resignation and indifferencee, are exposed in a mosaic of emotions.
Zooming in on Loss takes place in a compact spatial installation with which Van den Broek chooses for the raw experiment. Boundaries are pushed, freedom of movement is sacriffced and intensity is gained. Zooming in on Loss is a multidisciplinary production in which performance, sound, the spoken word, video and emotional expressions are blended together. Clarity is forever swept away by a state of disorien tation, confusion, chaos and madness.
“Zooming in on Loss about dementia is coming in hard.” (Het Parool)
Memory Loss
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Memory Loss is the third and final part of The Memory Loss Collection. In Memory Loss the two previous creations come together and create new elements which culminate in the conclusion of the triptych. In an interactive setting the fifteen performers lose their own self. The spoken word, movement, music and technology are mixed into a game of reality and illusion.
The process is irreversible. Imprisoned in the space and the brain. All the things one holds on to fade away and the remaining signals point to dark passages. In the darkness all connections to the material world and all memories seep away. The ultimate loss of self. Lovingly and cruel. A bitter reality where nobody comes out the same.
Memory Loss is nominated by the VSCD (Association of Theater and Music Hall Directors) for a Zwaan (Swan) for the most impressive dance production, the most prestigious Dutch dance prize.
“Memory Loss is an all-encompassing tour the force seething with buried emotions (…) Ann Van den Broek finds a terribly beautiful form for a terribly cruel disease.” (de Volkskrant ★★★★★)
Film Memory Loss Inside and Concert Memory Loss Collective
Friday, December 18 and Saurday, December 19, 2020
In the penetrating and poignant film Memory Loss Inside one experiences the production Memory Loss from the perspective of the performers in their role of people affected by memory loss. With cameras attached to the heads of the performers, they take you on a confusing and unnerving journey through a slowly fragmenting world. In their effort to get a grip on their environment, elements of the original production pop up like memories.
The film, a coproduction with the Dutch Dance Festival, was available online for one night only, so this is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in this film adaptation of Memory Loss. De Theaterkrant wrote: “Since the camera lets you follow every step of each performer, getting lost is twice as impactful (…) A terrifying gem.”
Concert Memory Loss Collective
Music and sound play a vital role in the entire Memory Loss Collection. Songs are developed around the recurring musical themes of the project. With the determination of a mantra the music and sound carve a groove in our hearing.
Some of the songs and motifs can be heard in all three productions. The moment, the event on stage colors the significance of the spoken words. Sometimes the music sounds like a distant memory, the next moment it emphatically penetrates your ears. So appropriate, to the point of giving you goosebumps. Always present, like the current of life itself, even when we no longer remember the words or their meaning.
In this live concert, Gregory Frateur, Nicolas Rombouts and Sjoerd Bruil will perform the songs and the sound like a total and stand-alone musical structure. If you have seen the productions, the sounds will conjure the images in your mind’s eye. If you attend the concert with a clean slate, let yourself be transported by the stirring and visceral energy that these men are able to evoke.
Memory/Loss/Series is a production of WArd/waRD in coproduction with partner Theater Rotterdam. The project has received grants from the Fonds Podiumkunsten, Fonds 21, BankGiro Loterij Fonds, Stichting Bevordering Volkskracht and Elise Mathilde Fonds.