Theater festival Noorderzon: freedom fighters and educational sex stories

He looks like an angry, old punk with his combed-back mohawk, gray duster coat and gnarled appearance, but the work of the French magician Johann le Guillerm displays a 19th-century sense of invention. The self-designed creations in Terceswhich can be seen at the Noorderzon theater festival in Groningen, testify to his extraordinary insight into the construction of kinetic machines, pile constructions, geometric shapes and a traditional knowledge of materials.

For ninety minutes he plays with gravity with a series of constructions, starting with a childishly folded paper airplane and ending with a ring-sized dome of braided, loose poles. There is a mobile device on four wheels, propelling itself by the hourglass effect of two chutes and a tipping water bowl. And Le Guillerm rides a rolling, semi-water wheel, with poles attached to the sides for pushing off. The enchantment of his work lies in the fact that everything is handmade, as if a sublime carpenter cum blacksmith has started experimenting.

With his introspective gaze and sporadic sniffling, the Frenchman is no showman, but the music and lighting give Terces a fairytale atmosphere. The light partly comes from lamps that run on a rail around the track. Here an artist enters new territory, without losing his childish open-mindedness about what circus can be.

Chat erotic

Another part of our fantasy is entered by the two men (Snorre and Torbjørn) from the Norwegian De Utvalgte in My Twisted World. What happens to men who are chronically sexually malnourished and why? The answer starts with men who chat erotically with women online. That’s Snorre’s job: he speaks on behalf of those women. But soon they dive deeper into the psychology of hidden desires, with role plays in which one is the mother or sex worker, and the other is transported back to childhood, when he was denied security.

They also share images of involuntarily celibate men. A world in which a man cannot get a kiss no matter how hard he tries is “an unfair world.” That injustice creates fantasies of violence.

The handsome of My Twisted World is that the makers maintain a light tone in this dark material, thanks to droll dressing up and satirical commentary. It does take a long time before all the lines come together somewhat. But the terrifying final image – of either an outlandish sexual fantasy or a bizarre psychological experiment – ​​will be remembered for a long time by any visitor.

The Noorderzon visitor is back in reality at the documentary Isidlamlilo (The Fire Eater), from the South African Empathy. Director Neil Coppen and actress Mpume Mthombeni tell the story of Zenzile Maseko, who fought apartheid on behalf of the Zulu organization IFP in the 1980s, but was also in conflict with the like-minded ANC. In a shabby, cluttered hostel room, the warrior looks back on her life, the cold-blooded murders she committed and what has become of South Africa.

Mpume Mthombeni plays the lengthy monologue with dynamic ingenuity, rattling laughter and beautifully simulated physical flaws. She considers her actions no less important than those of well-known heroes of the resistance. “Why isn’t there a street named after me?” she wonders, old and lonely, but full of zest for life. With her perspective Isidlamlilo an instructive, personal twist on history.

It underlines that the international programming at this edition of Noorderzon is also varied and of a high level. In YesWa the Polish makers Turkowski & Nowacka give an engaging account of their work with the homeless and in Made in China 2.0 Wang Chong gives a comical and painful demonstration of what it means to make theater in China.

Intimacy Coordinator

From Ireland comes another festival highlight: GoodSex from Dead Centre. With the help of disc star Emilie Pine, the meeting between two ex-lovers is told, with dramatic and uncomfortable flashbacks to what went wrong. What makes this tragicomic love story exciting is the inventive form in which the group casts it. Just like with De Utgalve, sex turns out to be a gateway to another issue.

Beforehand, an intimacy coordinator (Liv O’Donoghue) introduces the events. What is intimacy, what is consent? The play is supposedly for demonstration purposes. Unprepared, two Dutch actors (different every night) play the roles of the lovers. With earphones in, while Irish actors predict the text in a cube on stage. If the stage direction is ‘kiss’ or ‘sex’, the coordinator intervenes. Then she freezes the scene and rehearses briefly with attention.

The joke is that there is no arguing about what permission means, because the two actors immediately carry out every assignment and the coordinator becomes increasingly easy-going. It makes you as an audience all the more aware of the intimate actions that the actors have to perform, and also of the codes and artificiality of it. While a moment later you are fully involved in the story again. That interaction is insightful and witty. More intrusive than a conversation can take GoodSex you into the dangers of sex on stage. And make it feel like there are real people working behind the facade.

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