REVUE DE PRESSE

FRANK VAN LAEKE/ ALAIN PLATEL

En avant, marche !

04 – 06.09.2015

Détails Publication : mardi 23 juin 2015 13:33

En avant, marche! : un hommage pittoresque àl'esprit des fanfares

Par Julie Cadilhac - Bscnews.fr/ En 2012, lemusée gantois Huis van Alijin avait monté uneexposition qui donnait à voir des photographies etdes pièces du patrimoine d'hier et d'aujourd'huiautour du thème de la fanfare. Les metteurs enscène Frank Van Laecke et Alain Platel ont décidéà leur tour de rendre hommage à la tradition deces associations musicales. Sept musiciens etquatre comédiens, inspirés par la musique XIX etXXeme siècles, Ludwig Van Beethoven, GiuseppeVerdi ou encore Gustav Mahler, y jouent une

partition, souvent mélancolique, résolument singulière.

Chaotique ou ordonné, solennel ou familier, entraînant ou languissant, les multiples visages d'unetroupe se dessinent et s'effacent au gré des minutes passées en sa compagnie. Truffée d'inventivité,cette pièce est véritablement un "objet" à contempler et à entendre dans lesquels la scénographiejouant sur plusieurs niveaux met en exergue des fenêtres de vie, les costumes et la présence desmajorettes accentuent le côté nostalgique et désuet. L'amour, le sexe, la fraternité, les adieux, laplaisanterie, la joie d'être ensemble..Ici c'est le pouls de la vie qui bat la mesure, peut-être avec untempo qui mériterait d'être davantage enlevé...mais ce qui est sûr, c'est qu'il bat avec conviction etjustesse et l'on se surprend souvent à rester contemplatif devant les envolées lyriques et truculentes decette communauté d'êtres réunis pour l'amour de la musique et de la fête.Si l'on ne comprend pas bien toutefois la nécessité de la vulgarité des majorettes qui affichent sur leplateau une image féminine d'un manque d'élégance et de tenue affligeant - qui n'apporte rien aupropos -, l'acteur principal et sa bedaine de circonstances charme par son côté caméléon quisuperpose les langues, jongle de l'interprétation vocale à la danse, du clown à l'acrobatie. Les septmusiciens principaux forment également un chœur complice et attrayant, tantôt témoins passifs despulsations de vie qui envahissent le plateau, tantôt acteurs de cette comédie dramatique.

Une parade théâtrale et musicale qui séduira tous les nostalgiques et lassera sans doute tous ceux quin'adhèrent pas à la propension flamande au lâcher-prise et au franc parler.

En avant, marche!

Mise en scène : Frank Van Laecke et Alain PlatelComposition et direction musicale : Steven PrengelsCréé et joué par :Chris Thys, Griet Debacker, Hendrik Lebon, Wim Opbrouck, Gregory Van Seghbroeck (basse tuba),Jan D’Haene (trompette), Jonas Van Hoeydonck (trompette), Lies Vandeburie (bugle), Niels VanHeertum (euphonium), Simon Van Hueting (cor), Witse Lemmens (percussion)et le collectif Fanfares d’Oc : la Fanfare du Comptoir, Lorkes 974, la Fanfare Toto, Chofar away, Les

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Brigades du Cuivre, la Fanfare Paradix, la Fanfare Anti-Stress, la Fanfare des Goulamas.

Dramaturgie : Koen HaagdorensInterprétation du paysage sonore enregistré :KMV De Leiezonen sous la direction de Diederik De RoeckAssistance à la mise en scène : Steve De SchepperÉclairage : Carlo BourguignonSon : Bartold UyttersprotScénographie : Luc GoedertierCostumes : Marie ‘Costume’ LauwersRéalisation costumes : atelier NTGent conduit par An De MolRégisseurs plateau : Stefan Jansen, Wim Van de CappelleDirection de production : Marieke Cardinaels, Valerie DesmetResponsable de tournée : Steve De SchepperContact : www.fransbrood.comPhoto : Stephan VanfleterenCoproduction : Printemps des Comédiens

Les dates:

Les 22 et 23 juin 2015 au Printemps des Comédiens - Montpellier - Domaine d'Ô

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City Guide to Edinburgh, Scotland

EdinburghGuide » Edinburgh's Festivals » Festival 2015 Reviews

EIF 2015, En Avant, Marche!, King’sTheatre, ReviewBy Irene Brown - Posted on 25 August 2015

Show details

Venue: King's TheatreCompany: les ballets C de la B, NTGentRunning time: 90minsProduction: Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke(directors), KoenHaagdorens (dramaturg), Steven Prengels (composer and musicaldirector), KMV De Leiezonen(music performance for soundscape),Carlo Bourguignon (lighting design), Bartold Uyttersprot (sounddesign), Luc Goedertier (set design), Marie Lauwers (costume)Performers: Chris Thys, Griet Debacker, Henrik Lebom, WimOpbrouck(creators and performers), Gregory Van Seghbroeck (basstuba), Jan D’Haene (trumpet), Jonas Van Hoeydonck (trumpet), LiesVandeburie (bugle), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium), Simon Hueting(horn), Witse Lemmens (drums), Dalkeith and Monktonhall Band,Steven Prengels (conductor)

A wheezing elderly bandsman practises his one moment of glorywith the cymbals to a tape of the rehearsal piece before hisfellow amateur players arrive. With Tatiesque observation, thechairs are noisily clacked in to place by the early arrivals andslowly the buffoonery starts.

The Belgian contemporary dance collective, a ballet companywith no ballerinas with the aptly Magrittesque name les ballets Cde la B, makes its Edinburgh début with their latest piece ofradical musical theatre.

En Avant, Marche! peeks behind the formality of uniforms andexposes the human beings with their foibles. It is a delightfullyanarchic unbuttoning of what lies beneath the façade of orderperformed with humour and levity in an entertaining metaphorfor life.

The company’s inclusive philosophy allows not just an eclecticchoice of recognised music from Elgar and Holst to Sister Sledgeand Abba but incorporates leftfield methods of casting. For thisshow, local brass bands are used as they tour. In keeping withthe company’s philosophy, they exemplify community spirit andthe bringing together of a range of age groups. In this case it isthe Dalkeith and Monktonhall Band who provide beautiful round

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swooping sounds as they step to a finely choreographed slowcircular march. The band members are asked their occupationsby Wim Opbrouck in a casual and pleasant exposure of the reallives behind the disguise of costume though the surtitled versionof sexting between him and Chris Thys may have subsequentlycaused some discomfort!

This multi lingual performance takes place against a bigbackdrop of beaten bronze with random rectangular black gapswhere some whacky action takes place over the piece. There is asurreal joy in the conducting of the slow donning of uniforms atone end of the spectrum with the strutting of the gold lamédovertly sexual older cheerleaders at the other. From carnivalabandon to a group of Presbyterian like Morris men this unusualshow exemplifies the disconnect between appearances andrealities.

les ballets C de la B believe in uniting not dividing, whilerespecting the individual and remind us music can come fromanything and be anywhere. Who could argue with that? A call toForward March! fae the guid folk o Flanders is one to befollowed.

Inspired by the performances of En Avant, Marche! EIF organiseda city-wide day of free performances on Sunday 23rd Augustcalled Fanfare involving Scotland’s brass bands.

24-25August at 8pm

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En Avant, Marche! at Edinburgh festivalreview – mortality tale with a brimmingheartKing’s theatre, Edinburgh With a glorious sense of chaos, this productioncelebrates the community surrounding a dying trombonist with eloquence and adeep sense of fun

Lyn GardnerTuesday 25 August 2015 16.15 BST

We all eventually march into the darkness, but the elderly former trombone player atthe heart of this often exquisitely beautiful piece, created by Frank Van Laecke andAlain Platel, does it with a brass band at his heel. A production that swoops betweenhigh and low culture and combines concert, theatre and dance in one category-defying package, this is a show about community that places a community band – theDalkeith and Monktonhall Brass Band – at its sweaty, brimming heart.

To be honest it’s not always entirely clear what is happening, but what we do know isthat the local brass band has come together to rehearse, and that it might be the finaltime for Wim Opbrouck’s dying former trombonist, a man who can no longer makemusic because of the cancer in his mouth. Over the course of the next 90 minutes wesee the orchestra, a group of individuals – solicitors, nursery nurses and pensionadministrators – brought together into a single entity, yet still expressing their owninternal desires and rich emotional lives. In every insecure middle-aged woman thereis a twirling drum majorette. Even the dying have dreams and desires.

As in so much of Platel’s work for Les Ballets C de la B it feels as if all human life ispresented on stage. You never know quite where to look. What is happening aroundthe edges is always as intriguing as what is taking centre stage. Even putting out thechairs in the hall becomes a fascination. It’s a show in which the gaps speak aseloquently as the action and messy humanity spills across the stage. Then they startto play and become one.

Even at 90 minutes the show is over-extended, and at times it is too bound up in itsown internal world to let the audience in. But it is so deeply grained that it becomesabsorbing.

Platitudes become philosophy in a show that echoes Pina Bausch (“dance, dance orwe are lost” becomes “play, play or we are lost”), but also Pirandello (The Man withthe Flower in his Mouth) and even Abba (Thank You for the Music). It celebrates the

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power of community and the importance of playing in harmony. Because, let’s face it,the rest is silence.

At King’s theatre until 25 August. Box office: 0131-473 2000.

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Edinburgh 2015: En avant, marche!, King's Theatre, review:'self-indulgent'

EN AVANT, MARCHE! AT THE KINGS THEATRE, EDINBURGH CREDIT: PHILE DEPREZ

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BByy MMaarrkk BBrroowwnn25 AUGUST 2015 • 11:37AM

En avant, marche!, Edinburgh International Festival, review http://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/what-to-see/edinburgh-201...

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The city of Ghent in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, has made anextraordinary contribution to the contemporary performing arts. The city has a population ofless than quarter-of-a-million, yet it boasts many of the biggest names in European theatre,dance and performance, such as experimental theatre companies Victoria and OntroerendGoed (the latter of which is currently performing A Game of You as part of the TraverseTheatre's Edinburgh Fringe programme).

In En avant, marche! the Edinburgh International Festival brings together two of Ghent's mostimportant performing arts companies, NTGent and les Ballets C de la B, with the Dalkeith andMonktonhall Brass Band from the east of Scotland. Brass bands, the piece seems to suggest,are fascinating mini-communities which swim against the tide of atomisation andindividuation that characterises western societies in the 21st century.

At the outset, as the fictional Flemish band's declining and disappointed cymbalist shamblesonto the stage to begin a humorous, solo rehearsal, the show has a promising, Beckettiandimension. Superb performer Wim Opbrouck appears like a cosmopolitan,  multilingualKrapp, reflecting back on his best years, but still very much driven by an inner fire.

This contemplative character is joined by colleagues, ranging from two gold-clad, ageingmajorettes to amorous, young male musicians with a taste for older women. The scene seemsset for an affecting exploration of such themes as sex, death, ageing and our society'sobsession with youth.

It isn't long, however, before co-directors Frank Van Laecke and Alain Platel whisk the pieceaway from this initial promise and into self-indulgent, postmodern histrionics. Themajorettes, for instance, stand on chairs to scream their frustrations into the microphonesplaced high above the band.

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En avant, marche! CREDIT: PHILE DEPREZ

Opbrouck meanders, shoeless, between the musicians, his obvious talents squandered onspeeches that are mired in the postmodern obsession with "irony" and cultural relativism. Hispointless eclecticism includes the lyrics of Sister Sledge's 1979 dance hit Lost in Music, somelines of Dylan Thomas, and a gargling performance of God Save the Queen. It's all depressinglyreminiscent of Flemish "avant-garde" theatre maker Jan Fabre at his worst.

If the dominant performative element irritates, the Dalkeith and Monktonhall Brass Bandplays splendidly. A gorgeous piece of Dvorak towards the show's conclusion reminds us thatthe only truly emotive aspect of the production has come from the Scottish musicians. Which,of course, is ironic.

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Written By Irina Glinski17 July 20151 CommentCategories:Dance > EIF > EIF2015 > Features > InterviewTags: EIF 2015, En Avant Marche, Frank Van Laecke, Les Ballets C de la B

Interview: Frank Van Laecke

Alain Platel & Frank Van Laecke (Photo: Luk Monsaert)

I’ll hold my hands up and admit it: I am really not up on my Belgian culture. I’ve watched a few episodes of the (bloodybrilliant) Cordon and I am partial to a bit of Jacques Brel, but I come up empty when it comes to Flemish live art, theatre,and performance. As such, I have absolutely no presuppositions when I delve in to the curious world of Les Ballets C dela B, and En Avant, Marche! director Frank van Laecke.

Reading through Frank’s biography makes me a bit nervous. It’s difficult to know what type of work to expect from a manwho has directed across seemingly every art form, large scale and small, locally and internationally. Similarly, Les Ballets

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C de la B have an extraordinary track record in making form-breaking work, collaborating with artists of every colour,creed, and even species. When I ask Frank what we can expect from En Avant, Marche!, he refuses to pigeon-hole thework: ‘I carry all of my experiences with me, and take every opportunity to learn. I think it’s a mix of everything, oftheatre, dance, and music. The main actor in the piece is music, and what it can do in our lives.’ He goes on to give mesomething more concrete: the central arc of the play is a brass band dealing with the serious illness of one of its members;the man is saying farewell to the group, and they are saying farewell to him. A simple conceit, perhaps, but one that holdsa reflective mirror up to society. ‘If you read En Avant, Marche! as a funeral march,’ Frank poses, ‘it is not all aboutsadness. It can also be about celebrating the end of something. It’s a consolation.’

Frank is curious in this punctuating role that the brass band often seems to play in life: ‘The fact that the band is there atthe most important times in life, at a funeral, at a wedding – it is very telling. At these key moments, they are there, andwe stand still.’ He beautifully recalls the moment when he, co-director and founder of Les Ballets C de la B Alain Platel,and composer Steven Prengels first visited a brass band rehearsal: ‘We were moved by the mix of people – there was abaker, a doctor, so many different people, and they all came together one evening to do one thing, to create musictogether. All of the private storylines disappear, all of the private sorrows. The songs that came out of the brass band inthat moment were so beautiful, so inspiring, so touching. We understood we have to make something about that feeling,that collectivity. The world was standing still, whilst they were all there to create something together as a group.’ He isinterested in these rare moments of collective placidity. ‘In a world that moves ever faster, sometimes you have to stop inorder to continue. This is the balance we try to reach. Trying to find our place in the community. Thinking about what itmeans for you and your group when you have to leave.’

And so, I begin to better understand what is at the core of En Avant, Marche!: community and stillness. Community notjust as the heart of the piece, but also a lived reality for those involved with the performance. Frank describes thechemistry shared between the creative team and performers as ‘what life should be about’. As with Gardenia, his previouscollaboration with Les Ballets C de la B, En Avant, Marche! is devised entirely from scratch. Long days and weeks werespent in the rehearsal room, sharing ideas, forging the beating heart of the piece. ‘It’s a very heavy way of working. Youare falling on nothing but each other. You are full of doubts, but doubt is so important: it is the understanding that nothingcomes easily.’ At every stop of the tour, they will work with a different native brass band, with each member bringingtheir own stories and experiences, creating what he describes as ‘a living performance’. It is an enormous challenge, butone that he seems very excited by; ‘It’s fantastic that it is so alive, but this also makes it vulnerable. Sometimes it could gowrong!’ But I can’t help but feel that it is this vulnerability that makes the piece so human, and so accessible.

And so I still don’t really know what to expect, in terms of mechanics and words and visuals and plot. But I know that theteam behind En Avant, Marche! are setting out to move us, to disturb us, to make us doubt ourselves. It’s that moment thatis so special in theatre, the phenomenological experience of an audience coming together innocently and optimistically toshare something. As Frank says so beautifully, ‘In the end, we all do the same things: we ask people to love us, and ourwork. I will continue to try to understand and love what I make. It’s the bottom line of what we are doing.’

And I buy in to that one hundred percent.

En Avant, Marche! | Festival 2015

En Avant, Marche! is @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, on Mon 24 and Tue 25 Aug 2015 (part of EdinburghInternational Festival)

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