We denken de wereld
scored for oboe, english horn and recorders, bassoon, percussion and electronics
duration 55 minutes
Three individuals, three generations, one place. None of them want to remain, yet none are willing to depart. They are suspended between attachment and escape, between what is known and what might still be imagined. Will they cling to the status quo, or dare to think (and build) a new world?
We Think the World unfolds as a shared act of reflection and resistance. Words, movement, and sound intertwine in a dialogue that questions how realities are shaped, inherited, and transformed. The performance navigates the tension between stagnation and change, between speaking about the world and actively rethinking it.
The music plays a vital counterrole to the spoken text. It drifts, circles, and occasionally explodes, amplifying what remains unsaid. At times it gently follows the rhythm of thought; at others it erupts with volcanic intensity, propelling the words forward and opening space for imagination, urgency, and renewal.
Text: Mieke Laureys and Amina Belorf
Actors: Mieke Laureys and Amina Belorf
Dancer: Romeo Lothy
Coaching: Ruud Gielens
Ensemble: I Solisti
We denken de wereld was commissioned by I Solist and Johnny MUS and was first performed on February 16 at at Corso, Antwerp More info: https://www.johnnymus.be/we-denken-de-wereld
Cutting Edge: Unlike the three characters, whose individuality causes mutual friction from which the performance takes shape, the fourth character is: the music. Mathias Coppens' score is very close to the text: mysterious when the characters treat it differently, a release of energy when dormant discussions flare up, witty once the atmosphere becomes informal again.
Not only does Coppens feel and nourish the emotional charge of the words, from the outset his score is an allegory for the solution that the trio is working towards on stage. The composer integrates Eastern and African influences not to add an oriental effect or an exotic colour, but from a focused pursuit of a new language in which different ethnic elements merge into a unique whole that answers the question of the cultural origin of its building blocks.
Concert News: A lot also has to do with the somewhat skittish, at times hectic score by Mathias Coppens performed by I SOLISTI with Kasper Baele (oboe), Francis Pollet (bassoon) and Mathijs Everts (percussion), so that it all remains light and there is sufficient variety to be heard. Nowhere is the score heavy on the stomach.
