Hugo Claus described De verwondering (Wonder), the novel he wrote early on in his career, in 1962, as his best work. Racy, brutal, ugly, delightful and dark. And that is what adapter and director Bart Meuleman has in mind for his stage version of this kaleidoscopic novel.
The protagonist is Victor-Denijs de Rijckel, a 37-year-old English and German teacher, who leads a dead-end life after his porce. When he sees a masked woman at the White Rabbit Ball in Ostend, his passions are aroused once again. He wants to meet that woman. A schoolboy, Albert Verzele, takes him on a journey through Flemish fields to a castle. It is home not only to the woman of his desires but, as it turns out, also the centre of veneration of a certain Crabbe, a fascist leader who mysteriously disappeared during the war. De Rijckel increasingly identifies with Crabbe.
Hugo Claus leads us through the protagonist’s crisis to the ugliest pages of flamingantisme, the Flemish Movement. “It is a cesspool that de Rijckel finds in that village and in the end he falls into it”, says Meuleman. “Vlaanderen boven” – Flanders for ever. Or not?
director
- Bart Meuleman
text
- Hugo Claus
adaptation
- Bart Meuleman
performance
- Koen De Sutter
- Tomas Pevenage
- Anouck Luyten
- Manou Kersting
- Mark Verstraete
- Jonas Vermeulen
- Laurence Roothooft
- Hendrik Van Doorn
scenography
- Mark Van Denesse
light design
- Mark Van Denesse
sound design
- Senjan Jansen
costume design
- Ilse Vandenbussche
production
- Toneelhuis
- Toneelhuis
- Bart Meuleman
