• Theatre

Are we not drawn onward to new erA

Showing on Feb 1-4

Playing at Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC

A figure wearing a salmon-coloured shirt and face mask holds up a red tube exhuming a large cloud of white smoke that envelops the room. On the ground are multicoloured pieces of crinkled plastic.

Ontroerend Goed (Belgium)

Ontoerend Goed’s palindromic take on the climate crisis uses structure as metaphor, employing repetition and reversal to symbolize the need for a worldwide undoing of our actions. The play starts off with backward speech from the actors, but fear not: this strangeness is temporary, and as things become clearer the genius of the creation reveals itself.  

Technically as well as formally ingenious, Are we not drawn onward to new erA turns time, movement and visuals on their heads–and, like the best works of radical art, it does so in the service of political meaning. It’s an artistic intervention in a matter of the utmost importance, and it uses temporality as a provocation. As we draw closer and closer to worldwide calamity, this work asks us to rethink human possibility. 

Funded by Ontroerend Goed in coproduction with Spectra (BE)

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Artist Bio

Ontroerend Goed

Belgian-based but internationally renowned, Ontroerend Goed stages original productions that blend the ethics of theatre with those of performance art. Unpredictable, provocative and innovative, the group’s works are premised on the idea that each idea deserves its own unique form.

Venue

Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC

6354 Crescent Road, University of British Columbia

Showtimes

  • February 1: 7:30
  • February 2: 7:30
  • February 3: 7:30
  • February 4: 7:30

Runtime: 75 min, no intermission

Post-show talkback: Feb 1

Content Advisory

Haze

Tickets

Single Tickets: $39
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Access

Icon signalling a deaf or hard of hearing friendly performance

Deaf/Hard of hearing friendly (please read the introduction first)

Click here to read the introduction for Deaf / hard of hearing audience members, created by the artists.

Credits

DIRECTOR Alexander Devriendt CAST Bastiaan Vandendriessche, Britt Bakker, Ferre Marnef, Kristien De Proost, Leonore Spee, Vincent Dunoyer DRAMATURGY Jan Martens SCENOGRAPHY Philip Aguirre LIGHT, VIDEO & SOUND Jeroen Wuyts, Babette Poncelet TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Jeroen Wuyts, Seppe Brouckaert, Sarah Feyen COSTUMES Charlotte Goethals, Valerie Le Roy COMPOSITION William Basinski PERFORMED BY Spectra Ensemble ARRANGEMENTS Joris Blanckaert FINISHING OFF STATUE Daan Verzele, Jelmer Delbecque, Jesse Frans PHOTOGRAPHY Mirjam Devriendt INTERNSHIPS Morgan Eglin, Tim De Paepe MANY THANKS TO Ilona Lodewijckx, Luc De Bruyne, Matthieu Goeury, Simon Stokes, Björn Doumen, Les Ballets C de la B, everybody involved in the pre-study ‘koortsmeetsysteemstrook’ @ Toneelacademie Maastricht, and our fantastic test-audiences.

THE PERFORMANCE FEATURES William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops by Spectra Ensemble.

ONTROEREND GOED IS Alexander Devriendt, David Bauwens, Wim Smet, Karen Van Ginderachter, Sarah Feyen, Beth Thyrion, Angelo Tijssens, Charlotte De Bruyne, Aurélie Lannoy, Karolien De Bleser IN COPRODUCTION WITH Spectra, Kunstencentrum Viernulvier Gent, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Adelaide Festival & Richard Jordan Productions.

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