Josse De Pauw and Kris Defoort / LOD music theatre and Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
www.lod.be
| Text: | Josse De Pauw |
| Composer: | Kris Defoort |
| Inspired by: | Thelonious Monk |
| With: | Josse De Pauw and Kris Defoort Trio (Kris Defoort, piano; Nicolas Thys, electric bass; Lander Gyselinc, drums) |
| Images: | Bache Jespers and Benoit van Innis |
| Production: | LOD music theatre and Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne |
Accompanied by the music of Kris Defoort, Josse De Pauw returns to the Festival de Otoño a Primavera with the musical production An Old Monk, a work inspired by Thelonious Monk, the North-American jazz genius known for his unique improvisational style. An Old Monk is a creation about wanting to live at all costs. ‘Monk is both sombre and joyful at the same time. Sad and humorous. A little like life itself’ says Josse De Pauw. While his band plays and really gets into the groove, an old Monk gets up, leaving the piano to its own devices, stretches his stiff limbs and does a dance. He dances with no further aim than dancing itself, both cheerful and solitary. In An Old Monk, Josse De Pauw and the Kris Defoort Trio abandon themselves to the dance, which becomes an ode to the desire to raise one’s own old bones beyond what is expected. The title of the show is a pun which refers to the legendary jazz pianist and composer, but also to a need for monastic solitude. To the beat of jazz and against a backdrop of a hundred old illustrations projected onstage during the show, this production reflects not only on growing old and the process of bodily decay, but also on resistance and the relentless desire to keep on dancing.
The world premiere of An Old Monk took place on November 7th, 2012, in Bruges, Belgium. It was presented last summer at the Avignon Festival with great success, where it drew long queues.
