Grote Kerk Breda and BRIK unite for the final performances of the festival’s MANKIND. In this piece, a special experience for young and old with 4-star ratings in the NRC and 5-stars in Volkskrant, dancers deal with progression. With a stack of encyclopedias they build islands and tall towers and literally use ancient knowledge to make something new.
The high stilts of the Grote Kerk Breda give these latter offerings extra meaning. De Stilte will perform the piece twice during the festival at the Grote Kerk in Breda and then – 4.5 years after the premiere – it will actually finish. After more than seventy performances, MANKIND has gone into the archives
MANKIND at Grote Kerk Breda
“We are very pleased that we can collaborate again with Grote Kerk Breda and present a contemporary program to a wide audience in such a huge space,” says Jacques Timmermans, BRIK Artistic Director. In consultation with the director of Grote Kerk Breda, Marieke Wiegel, he devised a way to place this performance in the space as beautifully as possible. “So we arrive at the place for the organ, with an amphitheater arrangement where the height of the Grote Kerk Breda enhances the theme of the performance.”
Good synergy between MANKIND and the church
The fact that the last MANKIND show takes place at Kerkplaats gives the piece an extra charge. Also because of the reference to the Tower of Babel story: How many books can you stack before they fall or how many misunderstandings can you get because we all speak a different language, and mean something different? How can messing around and mixing with this outdated knowledge lead us to more, is our evolution really progressing? It is up to the viewer to interpret it.
Goodbye Paul van Kemenade
The idea for this latest performance at Grote Kerk Breda came from Paul van Kemenade. “For Paul, this may be the last performance with Di Stilte,” Timmermans says measuredly, indicating an approaching farewell as a theatrical musician. “The live music of Paul and Stefko in these acoustics, the building with books under the high church vaults, and the idea of humanity in this environment give this performance an even more engaging character.”
Dates and times of MANKIND during the BRIK Festival in Grote Kerk Breda:
Saturday, June 24: 8 p.m
Sunday, June 25: 4 p.m
For detailed information, the full program and tickets, see: www.grotekerkbreda.nl/agenda
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