Larf

Josse De Pauw, Tom Jansen and Dirk Roofthooft

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The première of 'Larf' took place on 4 May 2000 in Vooruit. This dramatic concert was developed via a number of small ‘improvised’ stages in 1999 on which graphics and text were tested with music for a limited audience.

In a certain way; 'Larf' was a continuation of 'Weg'. This show was produced in 1998 by Josse De Pauw, Peter Vermeersch and Pierre Vervloesem and, when it was selected for the ‘Theaterfestival 1999’, it was described as "a new standard in narrative theatre".

'Larf' too is, just like 'Weg', a big jam in which everybody enjoys doing what he wants with and next to the others. The participants to the Larf-jam were, in addition to Josse De Pauw, the actors Tom Jansen and Dirk Roofthooft, Flat Earth Society with director Peter Vermeersch, painter-sculptor-sceno-graphist Koenraad Tinel and Roland Van Campenhout.

Josse De Pauw 'has something’ with language and music. He started his drama career as one of the silent characters in group Radeis, the unsurpassed comic-visual theatre that toured Flanders and the rest of the world between 1977 and 1984, but his further path in theatre can be described as a growing slowly but surely towards language. In 'Weg',
he showed his mastery in blending language and music.

‘Weg’ is the outspoken result of a year-long cooperation with composer-musician Peter Vermeersch. Peter Vermeersch was also present at the birth of 'Usurpation', he composed music for 'Ward Comblez'; Josse De Pauw wrote the lyrics for Vermeersch' opera 'De oplosbare vis', etc. Vermeersch has already proved that he can write a score and at the
same time make a presentation with his compositions for Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Wim Vandekeybus. For 'Larf' too, a similar approach was used: the actors practised in a room, the musicians in another one and from time to time, they came together to find out ‘whether it sounds and how it sounds’.

Han Geurts, a journalist at the Rotterdams Dagblad, described this dramatic concert as follows: “Voices become sound, floating on music and sinking into it”. Indeed, in this show, music and words are equal partners.

Larf was crowned with the Océ-podium Prize 2001. It’s a Victoria production within the framework of TIME Festival 2000.

CREDITS

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text, concept & direction Josse De Pauw
composition & musical direction Peter Vermeersch
musical performers Flat Earth Society Orchestra & Roland Van Campenhout
actors Josse De Pauw, Tom Jansen, Dirk Roofthooft
production Victoria
co-production Kunstencentrum Vooruit / Festival Van Vlaanderen /
Keizer Karel 1500-2000 / Brussel 2000

The following people also participated in this show:
dramaturgy Marianne Van Kerkhoven
décor concept & execution Koenraad Tinel
lighting design & head technician Philippe Digneffe
sound technician Lieven Callens & Steven Lorie
costume RvC Lieve Pynoo
photography Phile Deprez
production manager Pat De Wit (VICTORIA) & Vicky Ranschaert (FES)
thanks to Stefan Blommaert, COPAGRO (Tasso) & Tino Don Porto Carero

︎︎︎MORE INFO (MUSIC+SHOP)

 Rotterdams Dagblad
"Like a hunting thunderstorm, Peter Vermeersch's compositions push and drive the performance. Brilliant music."

De Standaard
"A truly amazing battery. With wide flows of energy it impresses, in the silent moments it's moving. And in the end it leaves you looking deeply into your heart. A forcing experience."

Knack
"Voices announce that tonight a child will become a king and then Peter Vermeersch is setting free the instruments into some amazing compositions, which evolve in one fluent movement to the apotheosis of the blues king. Larf is the icing on the cake of a long lasting art-brotherhood between Vermeersch and De Pauw... A mature fruit, eating and drinking at the same time, which makes up for an entire year of theatre."