In the summer of 1816, Lord Byron and Dr. Polidori rented the notorious Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. They were expecting the cheerful company of Percy and Mary Shelley, but the summer trip soon turned sour. An endless night drew slowly over the European continent. Black ash rained down and the temperatures crept below zero. The group started telling horror stories out of pure boredom. Byron and Polidori dreamed up vampires; Mary wrote the beginning of Frankenstein; Percy fainted and gave up. Because what might happen if their monstrous brainchildren started to lead a life of their own?
created by and featuring
KRAPP (Mats Vandroogenbroeck, Timo Sterckx, Nona Demey Gallagher) and Greet Jacobs
script
Mats Vandroogenbroeck
design and costumes
Lotte Boonstra
coaching
Luc Nuyens
music
Sam Serruys
partners
CAMPO, Arenberg, De Grote Post, Festival Cement, de Roovers
in partnership with
Cultuurcentrum Mechelen
“We will each write a ghost story”, said Lord Byron, and his proposition set our restless minds on fire.
That night, our deepest fears would bubble up, like ink in water.
There were four of us. We all started writing.
The noble Byron dreamt of people feeding on each other’s flesh.
Poor Polidori was already licking his yellowish teeth.
Percy screamed his nipples were turning into two, staring eyes.
And I, the silent Mary, was stitching a woman’s arm to a man’s rotting torso -
Suddenly, the half-written pages started crumbling in front of our very eyes, and we realised that through the little cracks, something terrifying was looking back at us…
At the last edition of Theater aan Zee, Nona Demey Gallagher, Mats Vandroogenbroeck and Timo Sterckx received De Jong Theaterschrijfprijs from Sabam For Culture. This prize for young theatre makers who write their own plays was awarded for their previous production, Through the looking-glass (and what we found there). The jury praised the intelligence of the text and the unbridled fantasy with which they visualised this impressive language game.
