Toneelgroep de Appel
Music and sound design for 6 plays, spanning a full day of theatre, made in close collaboration with Carl Beukman.
Odysseus was nominated for the Toneelpublieksprijs (audience award) 2008.
About
A day-long theatre marathon about the story of Odysseus.
At the end of December 2003, De Appel presented the theater marathon Tantalus by John Barton, directed by Aus Greidanus. An enormous success, seen by many. Aus Greidanus, director and actor in Tantalus, hinted at the end of that piece about the story of Odysseus also being a great one to tell. Then the curtain fell and there was thunderous applause.
On Monday, August 20 2007, the first rehearsal of Odysseus took place in a meeting room of the Appeltheater. Odysseus lay shining on the table: in six brand new plays. The first careful acquintance with this huge pile of text. Aus Greidanus triumphantly showed a stone he had brought from a Greek island. “Perhaps Odysseus once stood on this stone.” The stone is a relic, the little nothing from which the big story steadily grows. Guus van Geffen (set designer) showed photos from battered Iraq. War. The palaces of Sadam used as sleeping quarters by American soldiers. Absurd and surreal, yet very real. Horribly real. Annelies de Ridder (costume designer) spoke about a man who returns from the war battered. “How does someone like that sit on the couch at home?”
A first rehearsal is reminiscent of the sea voyages that the Greeks made. We have it easy: satellite, GPS, telephone. The Greeks went to sea without nautical charts, listening to the wind, looking at the sun, the stars, birds and dolphins. They showed them the way. Sacrifices to the gods were their only hope for a safe return home…
Four months later the Appeltheater saw the successful première of a true theatre epic, after an intense and eventful journey involving everyone on and off stage.
Credits
text / adaptation: Jules Terlingen, Aus Greidanus sr., Alain Pringels
direction: Aus Greidanus sr.
actors: Marguerite de Brauw, Sacha Bulthuis, Isabella Chapel, Hubert Fermin, David Geysen, Aus Greidanus sr., Geert de Jong, Judith Linssen, Hugo Maerten, Jules Terlingen, Bob Schwarze
scenography: Guus van Geffen
costume design: Annelies de Ridder
light design: Guus van Geffen, Henry van Niel
music and sound: Carl Beukman, Jorg Schellekens
dramaturgy: Alain Pringels
assistent director: Jacomine de Visser
Première
23 December 2007, Appeltheater (The Hague, NL)