For MANNAHATTA, Renée Goethijn and scenographer Stefan Jakiela transform the stage into a landscape that does its stubborn best to imitate a scene in nature. That landscape is populated by three figures for whom the natural world is no more than a vague memory. When the reality they are part of disappears, the three figures are left at the mercy of each other and their surroundings.
concept and direction
Renée Goethijn
scenography
Stefan Jakiela
actors
Goele Derick, Guy Dermul, Lotte Diependaele
sound design
Joris Blanckaert
lighting design
Kurt Lefèvre
stage directions
Bart Capelle
direction, stage and design assistant (trainee)
Amélia Malfait
producer
Kunstenwerkplaats KWP
co-producer
Kunstencentrum Vooruit, C-TAKT, Antigone, De Grote Post
with support from
Kultuurfaktorij Monty, Gc De Kriekelaar en K.A.K.
Clash
How do they adapt when those sterile surroundings start to burst out of their seams? When the landscape resists, begins to lead a life of its own and starts to organise itself? When what has been undermined suddenly re-emerges? Will a new now emerge from the clash between present and future, one that can challenge our egocentric vision of the world?
Particular state
MANNAHATTA is a production on the cutting edge of theatre, performance and visual work. MANNAHATTA is a particular state, a bizarre, magic-realist world of experience. Or is it one big simulation that we are all in together? A simulation that lives on long after the manifest world has turned to dust?
MANNAHATTA is a continuation of the artistic practice in which Renée Goethijn deploys the scenery as an actor in its own right. In this piece, her starting points are, firstly, the way we deal with the warnings that our way of living on Earth is under threat. Secondly, she focuses on how humans and their environment are trying to survive in a world that is subject to transformation at breakneck speed.
