Marketplace 76 is a post-epic story divided into four parts, corresponding to four seasons. In a gas tanker explosion 24 people lose their lives and the rest of village inhabitants have to create their world anew after their death. The show is a study of a crisis triggered by an ongoing process of disintegration and loss of a once close group of people. The reality affected by the tragedy is getting out of hand; the accident triggers consecutive extreme situations. Jan Lauwers together with a group of dancers-performers in a poetic, emotional, but detached, manner talk about the community and the mechanisms of its disintegration. The will to survive, friendship and love help in the attempt to reconstruct the lost integrity, overcome the dominant feeling of sadness and loneliness. The scenes in the show are held together by bitter and sweet songs composed specially for the Needcompany actors.
Needcompany is an exceptional phenomenon in the European theatre. The band, formed in 1986 by Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Berkey, gathers around it an international, multilingual and interdisciplinary circle of artists. The members and associates of Needcompany create within the group their own dance, music and theatre projects. In this way, the band functions as a structure that develops in an organic manner. Their everyday creative work is marked by openness to experiment and seeking new languages of expression. Needcompany belongs to the most important contemporary theatre groups, performing in theatres and at festivals all around the world.
Author, direction, set design: Jan Lauwers
performed by: Hans Petter Dahl, Catherine Travelletti, Benoît Gob, Anneke Bonnema, Julien Faure, Sung-Im Her, Yumiko Funaya, Grace Ellen Barkey, Romy Louise Lauwers, Emmanuel Schwartz, Maarten Seghers, Jan Lauwers, Elke Janssens
Music: Rombout Willems, Maarten Seghers, Hans Petter Dahl
Costumes: Lot Lemm
Dramaturgy, subtitles: Elke Janssens
Production: Needcompany
Coproduction: Ruhrtriennale, Burgtheater, Holland Festival
With the support of: the Flemish authorities
première: 7.09.2012