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For the 08-festival Wannie directed the stage production Guests. Also this time with students from different drama schools in The Netherlands and South-Africa, and with Appelactors Sacha Bulthuis and Judith Linssen.
Wannie shaped his heterogenous group of actors into this living organism. Every individual in the group has his/her own function being a part of this organism. When the organism turns it's head, it brings along it's body. Every act of the individual has consequences for the others. A gesture or remark of one of them, comes over the entire group like a wave. Where and how the wave breaks and hits the beach, must over and over again be discovered by the group as a whole, depending on the speed and the size of the wave and ofcourse depending on the response of the audience. This dynamic of the group as an organism, that develops it's own language and rhythm, demands the utmost concentration of every single member of the group.
From this powerful positive tension between the different members of the group, anything that matters within or between people can take shape.
Discomfort, wrong communication, irritatation, anxiety, but also dreams, longing and imagination are under a microscope in this performance.
Texts and scenes written by the actors themselves, about confessions, dreams, excuses, misunderstandings, travelstories or a sudden acquaintance with a perfect stranger, were used as a base for improvisation and short scenes. Wannie and his actors put this material to work within the organism, without being afraid to evolve beyond this form. To string these scenes into a structure was postponed as long as possible, so the energy and concentration didn't get a chance to weaken.
Wannie and his actors create with Guests, some sort of parallel universe. Within this universe all peculiarities, habits and vulnerabilities of the human animal exist, but he is convicted to act according to a magnification and regularity of these characteristics. It is within the actors that both worlds come together. And on precious moments during the performance we see that conviction to this universe lighting their faces with panic, incomprehension or longing.
It is the form, of the organism, that shows us an absurd reality, but it is the actors, who through their character are lost in this reality, that hold in front of us a mirror.
Janneke de Vlas
Intern dramaturgy