Lotte van den Berg / OMSK (NL) Les spectateurs

52% theatre 31% images 17% strangeness

What does it mean to make contact with foreign surroundings? How does it feel to be a guest in a country that you do not know? Is it possible to become a part of it, or must you forever stay a mere observer?
The Dutch director Lotte van den Berg has become one of the most important protagonists of her generation, with theatre that is radically entrenched in its respective social setting. She gave up her job as resident director at Toneelhuis Antwerp to start OMSK, a new company in the small city of Dordrecht, where she began by establishing contact with her close surroundings so as to incorporate it into her work. From up close to maximum distance: she then spent four months with OMSK in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo. Returning from distant parts, we recognise our own limits, our own roots. The calm and the space around us. Only from within ourselves can we understand something of the difficulties experienced by many immigrants in adapting to their new environment.
Together with visual artists, musicians and actors from the Netherlands and Africa, Lotte van den Berg develops an evening about moving from Europe to the Congo and back.
The focus of “Les spectateurs” is on a question that also cuts to the core of theatre: do we accept our role as spectators or do we want to become part of it? Are we part of a community or do we look for our own freedom in distance?
“Les spectateurs” is about the necessity of individuality and self-preservation. A performance about the detached spectator who yearns to be absorbed into the world they observe.



herbst Academy
Workshop 3: Translating the Unknown