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The Avignon Festival 2006 - A Personal Encounter (Part III)Reviews (4)Jacqueline Fletcher visits the 60th Avignon FestivalDateline: 6th August, 2006The Lobster Shop (Le Bazar du Homard) While on the subject of Belgian directors, I have to say that Jan Lauwers is really one of my favourites. One thing that characterises Cassiers, Fabre and Lauwers is that they are all graduates of art colleges. They were plastic artists before they turned to theatre, and this liberates their approach to the mis-en-scène. Lauwers questions traditional suppositions, examines the signification process and the origins of theatrical languages. His actors are never attempting to psychologically embody a character, they are always 'thinking' actors involved in the 'transparent game'. Because his work is interdisciplinary, he is often erroneously referred to as a choreographer, which is strange considering he staged so many adaptations of Shakespeare before he started writing his own 'plays'. He works with his own company, founded in 1986, many of whom have remained over the years, such as his wife Grace Ellen Barkey, and the remarkable Vivienne de Muynck. While he does write a text, the way it is finally staged owes something to the actors' collaboration. This production is staged in English as there are eight different nationalities among the cast and it is a reflection of a multitude of talents. There is music, song and dancing, a video screen depicting a man in a rubber boat at sea, and a strange white installation dotted about the stage. It is difficult to do justice to the piece which is funny and heart-warming, melancholic and tragic, dark and surreal. Like so many of the directors with work at the Festival, Lauwers is very worried about the state of the world at the present moment. Like Brook, Mnouchkine and Nadj he speaks of fears for the future, of a planet and a human race in crisis. Perhaps the surreal qualities of The Lobster Shop are a reflection of these fears. They are part of a nightmare. The performance recounts the story of Axel and Theresa who have lost their son during an accident on the beach. No amount of therapy has given them any relief from the grief that overwhelms their lives, so Axel decides to put an end to it all. He decides to throw himself into the sea, but before he does he puts on his best suit and goes out to dine at his favourite restaurant The Lobster Shop. Everything spins out of control when the waiter trips and throws the sauce into Axels lap, ruining his best trousers and causing him to lose his temper and try to kill the waiter, who, it turns out, is an illegal immigrant whom Axel has actually saved from drowning after the rickety, overloaded boat bringing him illegally into the country had capsized. While brawling in the street, they are almost killed by a Russian lorry driver dressed in a bear suit. In fact, this is all part of Axel's hallucinations. Axel is a scientist and he attempts to return his lost son to life by creating his clone, Salman, only to find himself even more alienated from the world and his family. Axel tries to destroy his clone and Salman, enraged by the rejection, becomes the instigator of insurrection. At a barbecue organised by his parents he burns the entire neighbourhood down. It is telling that the restaurant of the title is on a street called Rue de Flandre; it is a microcosm of Belgium and, therefore, bourgeois existence. The issues at the forefront as well as in the background are crucial to the turmoil of the early 21st century, a world of uncertainties, migrations, criminality, the alienation and loss of identity brought about my modern science and technology. It is very funny, bursting with energy, tragic, thought-provoking and scary as well. This is Lauwers at his best and most innovative and the NeedCompany are in fine form, addressing the audience, engaging us in the humour and irony, singing and dancing and then turning everything upside down again. >> Next page
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