Best of International Theatre 2010 #1: Ontroerend Goed, ‘The Smile Off Your Face’

Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin

Sept 30 – Oct 3

One could accuse me of laziness. Not only is The Smile Off Your Face not a show that debuted in 2010 (which is the point of this list) and in fact came onto the scene a few years ago, but it is also a show I have already written about (the link to that post is on the bottom of this one). I gave The Smile Off Your Face #1 not only because it was hands down the greatest theatre experience for me this past year, but one of the most magical experiences of my whole life.

Smile is basically a mirror, ironic as it is seeing as you’re blindfolded throughout. Much like the 101 scenarios, this show has the ability to get under the surface of your very being. Whereas the Oneohone example I wrote about prompts you to reflect on your courage, or lack thereof, Ontroerend Goed softly treads the peripheries of your intimate, personal life.    

The magic of this show lies in the trust between your disabled self and the mysterious performers who surround you, as you together draw back the curtain of the syncretism of theatrical illusionary and reality. This material is the fabric of theatre, of art, and never quite has one sailed (or pushed in a wheelchair) so close to this sight of the real and unreal being so beautifully harmonized.

Beautiful.

The Smile Off Your Face review:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/10/ontroerend-goed-smile-off-your-face.html#more

Other Ontroerend Goed …

Internal:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/10/ontroerend-goed-internal-blind-date.html#more

A Game of You:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/10/ontroerend-goed-game-of-you-about-you.html#more

Teenage Riot:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-of-international-theatre-2010-5.html#more

Best of International Theatre 2010 #5: Ontroerend Goed, ‘Teenage Riot’

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Aug 17-28

I imagine it went something like this ...

One day a man woke up and said “I want to do a play. I want to do a play, and it will be about teenagers and performed entirely by teenagers. It could only be performed by teenagers. It will be unapologetic, chaotic, and unpredictable”.

Alexander Devriendt – artistic director of Belgian theatre entrepreneurs Ontroerend Goed – found thirteen Flemish teenagers and put together a show which became aptly known as: Once and For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen. Devriendt (33) and his motley crew of adolescents brought the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008 where it received critical acclaim and earned a tour to festivals all over the world. Critics especially applauded the show’s gleaming nostalgia, and its artful artifice of a universal ‘teenagedom’ realised as a realm now lost to today’s adults. Devriendt became something of champion of unheard teenagers, a Peter Pan to the Lost Boys if you will. Nestling tour dates around school holidays, Once and For All…was on the road for two years before its final performance in Ghent in April of this year. The Lost Boys had to grow up eventually, but seemingly Pan didn’t …

Ontroerend Goed, ‘A Game of You’: About You

Smock Alley Theatre

Oct 13-17 

 

My thoughts on A Game of You, and the Personal Trilogy as a whole, coming up just as soon as I burn you a CD …

Ontroerend Goed, ‘Internal’: Blind Date

My review of Internal, part two of Ontroerend Goed’s Personal Trilogy, just as soon as I have a shot of Cointreau …

Ontroerend Goed, 'The Smile Off Your Face': Blind Man's Bluff

One of the international highlights at this year’s Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival is Ontroerend Goed’s Personal Trilogy in Smock Alley. My review of part one: The Smile Off Your Face coming up just as soon as I eat some marzipan …