NTGent, originally Nederlands Toneel Gent, is a theatre company in Ghent, Belgium. Subtitled "Het Stadtstheater van de Toekomst" (the City Theatre of the Future), it is especially known for the avant garde theatre produced by Milo Rau, who was artistic director from 2018 until January 2023. As of 2024[update], there are three co-directors: Yves Degryse, Barbara Raes, and Melih Gençboyacı, while Rau is responsible for the 2023–2024 artistic programme.
The company is based at the Royal Dutch Theatre (Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg).
History
Royal Dutch Theatre (KNS)
On 28 October 1965, Nederlands Toneel Gent (Dutch Theatre of Ghent) was established as the city theatre of Ghent, a public institution, with its home at the Royal Dutch Theatre[nl] (KNS).[1]
From 1979 to 1993, the KNS undertook an extensive refurbishment, which included the addition of a house on Biezekapelstraat. While the entrance and auditorium were undergoing renovations (1987–1993), NTGent had to find alternative venues for its performances.[1]
Swiss-born director Milo Rau was appointed artistic director in 2018.[2] Wanting to reshape the model of the European stadtstheater, believing that they are exclusive and elitist, and wanting to create "something more open" and better reflecting the multicultural nature of European cities today, Rau introduced his 10-point "Ghent Manifesto",[3] in which he declared, among other stipulations:[4]
It's not just about portraying the world anymore. It's about changing it. The aim is not to depict the real, but to make the representation itself real.
The literal adaptation of classics on stage is forbidden. If a source text – whether book, film or play – is used at the outset of the project, it may only represent up to 20 percent of the final performance time.
At least two different languages must be spoken on stage in each production.
At least one production per season must be rehearsed or performed in a conflict or war zone, without any cultural infrastructure.
Each production must be shown in at least ten locations in at least three countries. No production can be removed from the NTGent repertoire before this number has been reached.
Rau stepped down from the role of artistic director in January 2023, although he continues to be involved with NTGent.[2]
Actors and collaborations
Until 2018, the company comprised a permanent ensemble of actors, which included Elsie de Brauw, Wim Opbrouck, Els Dottermans, Risto Kübar, and others. After the appointment of Rau as artistic director in 2018, the format changed to employing actors for a specific project only.[1]
A series of theatrical pieces was created by Rau in 2018 under the title Histoire(s) du Théâtre. The title is a reference to Jean-Luc Godard's documentary film Histoire(s) du Cinéma, which recalled key moments in the history of European cinema. The first in the series was Rau's work La Reprise, which premiered at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in May 2018. Others in the series include Histoire(s) du Théâtre II (which included a re-enactment of a famous 1970s dance performance by the Congolese National Ballet), directed by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula; Spanish director Angélica Liddell's In Liebestod - Histoire(s) du Théâtre III; Miet Warlop's Histoire(s) du Théâtre IV: One Song (2022); and English artist and writer Tim Etchells' Histoire(s) du Théâtre V: How Goes The World (2023–24).[5]
In March 2023, the Belgian company Ontroerend Goed[nl], headed by artistic director Alexander Devriendt, was appointed artists in residence at NTGent for five years.[6]
Rau and his NTGent team travelled to the state of Pará in Brazil, where Amazonian forests are being destroyed and replaced by the cultivation of soy monoculture. In collaboration with the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST; "Landless Workers Movement"), they created Antigone in the Amazon, an allegorical play about the impact of the modern state and impact on traditional land rights, which causes huge displacements of people and devastation of culture. Scenes were filmed in Brazil, and the performance combines storytelling, music, film, and theatre, to illustrate its themes of political protest, state brutality, and heroism, based on Sophocles' play Antigone; a Greek tragedy transposed to a modern village in the Amazon.[7] There is filmed re-enactment of the 1996 Eldorado do Carajás massacre, in which military police opened fire on a peaceful protest, killing 21 activists and injuring 69 others.[8][9] The play premiered in May 2023, before going on tour in Europe.[10][11][12] The play is performed in several languages, with English subtitles for its 2024 run at the Adelaide Festival in Adelaide, South Australia, in March 2024.[13]
In December 2023, NTGent produced The Last Generation, or the 120 Days of Sodom, a reenactment of the Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1975 film performed by actors with Down syndrome in three languages, in collaboration with the Belgian ensemble Theater Stap, whose actors have learning disabilities.[2]
As of 2024[update], NTGent's house artists are Milo Rau, Luanda Casella, and Lara Staal. Its artists in residence are: Ontroerend Goed, Miet Warlop & Irene Wool vzw, and Action Zoo Humain.[1]
Description
NTGent is subtitled "Het Stadtstheater van de Toekomst" (the City Theatre of the Future).[1] It is subsidised by the Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Flemish Community) and the City of Ghent. There is a board of directors whose members are appointed by the subsidising authorities, and allowance is made for six co-opted members.[1][14] Its best seats cost only around 28 euros.[2]
As of 2024[update] the artistic co-directors are Yves Degryse, Barbara Raes, and Melih Gençboyacı, while Milo Rau is responsible for the 2023–2024 artistic programme.[15]
Theatre patrons with visual or auditory disabilities, or those not fluent in Dutch are able to borrow a tablet to help them follow the performance, using a personalised app. Subtitles, audio description, and sign language are available on the app.[16]
Venues
As well as touring its productions, NTGent uses the 600-seat Royal Dutch Theatre (KNS) and 200-seat Minnemeers. NTGent also has partnerships with the VIERNULVIER and the Minardschouwburg.[1]
The KNS, located in the city centre, was in 1899 established as a permanent location for the Nederlands Tooneel van Gent which had been established in 1871 and was performing in the Ghent Minardschouwburg[nl] ("the Minard"). After this company dissolved in 1945, the KNS was used by companies from Antwerp and Brussels. In 1965 NTGent took up residence at KNS.[1]
The KNS underwent significant renovations between 1979 and 1993, and from October 2016, extensive modernisation and some internal reorganisation.[1]
As of February 2024[update], NTGent manages two buildings owned by the City of Ghent, the KNS-Schouwburg and Minnemeers. There is an infrastructure plan to remedy some deficits of both buildings, which will undergo renovations during the year. Minnemeers will be transformed into a dual venue, with a black box theatre and a new hall. Its set studio will move to a new site outside the city, which will include rehearsal rooms.[17]
2018: Lam Gods (dir. Rau), which recreates Ghent's most famous artwork, known as Lam Gods, the 15th-century altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck and features local residents as its biblical figures, crusaders, and martyrs[3][2]
2019: Histoire(s) du Theatre (I) , recreating a notorious homophobic murder in Liège in 2012[18]
2020: Familie, about a family who all commit suicide[19]
2023: Barbara Raes, Melih Gençboyacı en Yves Degryse
Related Research Articles
Ghent is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, after Brussels and Antwerp. It is a port and university city.
Antigone is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by Ajax, which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote Antigone first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone.
The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National Opera of Belgium, a federal institution, takes the name of this theatre in which it is housed—La Monnaie in French or De Munt in Dutch—referring both to the building as well as the opera company. As Belgium's leading opera house, it is one of the few cultural institutions to receive financial support from the Federal Government of Belgium. Other opera houses in Belgium, such as the Vlaamse Opera and the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, are funded by regional governments.
Els Dottermans is a Belgian actress of stage, film, and television.
The Eldorado do Carajás massacre was the mass killing of 19 landless farmers who were taking part in a peaceful protest. They were shot by military police on April 17, 1996, in the southern region of the Pará state, Brazil.
Faustin Linyekula is a Congolese dancer and choreographer of contemporary dance.
God of Carnage is a play by Yasmina Reza that was first published in 2008. It is about two sets of parents; the son of one couple has hurt the son of the other couple at a public park. The parents meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish and the meeting devolves into chaos. Originally written in French, the play was translated into English by translator Christopher Hampton, and has enjoyed acclaim in productions in both London and New York.
Wim Opbrouck is a Flemish actor and singer from Belgium. He is especially known for his work on stage.
Ivo van Hove is a Belgian theatre director known as the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Netherlands and for his Off-Broadway avant-garde experimental theatre productions. On Broadway, he has directed revival productions of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, and The Crucible, Lee Hall's Network in 2018, and Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story in 2020. Among his numerous awards he has received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for A View from the Bridge. He was made a Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 2004, and a Commander in the Order of the Crown in 2016.
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Milo Rau is a Swiss theatre director, journalist, playwright, essayist, and lecturer. In 2007 he founded a theatre and film production company, the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM), and from 2018 until 2023 was the artistic director of the Belgian theatre group NTGent, in Ghent, transforming its direction. He is known for his political theatre.
Verona Verbakel is a Belgian actress.
Tom Van Landuyt is a Belgian actor and singer probably best known for his role as Tom Smits in the Belgian drama film Ad Fundum. He has also starred in numerous Flemish movies, Television series and on stage. In 2002, he married the Dutch actress Angela Schijf.
Jackie Wylie is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the National Theatre of Scotland
Risto Kübar is an Estonian stage, voice, and film actor.
Ruth Mackenzie is an artistic director of theatres and arts festivals. She has worked extensively in the UK and Europe, and was responsible for the London 2012 Festival. In 2022 she was appointed as artistic director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts in South Australia.
Five Easy Pieces (2016) is a theatre production that the Swiss theatre and film director Milo Rau made with children for the Ghent arts centre CAMPO and that is based on the Dutroux affair.
Elsie de Brauw is a Dutch actress.
Ihsane Jarfi was murdered in Liège, Belgium in April 2012. It was the first case of homophobic murder recognized under Belgian law.
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