Het Kanaal / Crossing Borders - Ostade A'dam
On a beach near Calais a young refugee prepares himself to swim across the Channel, towards his new future. On the English side, on the chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, a (transsexual) woman bids life goodbye; in a few instants she will jump to her death.
The new text by author Gaea Schoeters is mirrored by recently recovered Shakespeare-text.
Composer Annelies Van Parys uses the Shakespeare-text as a libretto for a cycle of songs, which set the refugee theme in a historical perspective. The soprano is also the intermediary between past and present, audience and play; via other spoken Shakespeare fragments she sets the story in a different perspective, turning the personal stories into a sharp reflection of society, both in the 16th century and today – because the similarities are, alas, striking.
- the show is performed in Dutch but subtitled in English -
Tickets: www.ostadeadam.nl