Jan Martens & Peter Seynaeve / CAMPO
2013With VICTOR, Jan Martens and theatre-maker Peter Seynaeve created at CAMPO a duet for a man and a child. Through this intimate portrait they explore the possible relations between these two individuals, of which some are highly emotionally charged.
In VICTOR, a man and a child appear together on stage: one of them has already travelled a long road, the other wants to grow up as fast as possible. They could be brothers, father and son, lovers, or perhaps they are one and the same person. On stage, it is their bodies that speak: in a sensual game of muscles, but at the same time also in a power game with unequal weapons. In different scenes, the two protagonists string simple movements and poses together, small gestures and positions. Again and again they measure their forces, gliding back and forth between play and confrontation, always carrying but also challenging one another.
Peter Seynaeve graduated from Studio Herman Teirlinck in 1996 and then worked as an actor at Laika, tg Stan, HET PALEIS and Toneelhuis. He made his debut as a director with the show As you like it and then wrote and directed various works such as Je ne comprends pas and Betty & Morris for theatre company JAN. In 2013 he made VICTOR with Jan Martens, co-produced by CAMPO.
“Endlessly unsettling and utterly fascinating.”
- Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 17 December 2015
“With hands that claw, pull and push. And feet that stamp, clamber and glide. That is how the two dancers plough the souls of the spectators in the stunningly beautiful VICTOR.”
- Els Van Steenberghe, Focus Knack, 25 April 2013 ****
“Martens is a master at suggesting meaning and at doing justice to the subtle structure of connotation.”
- Fransien van der Putt, Cultuurpers, 16 May 2013
PREMIERE: 25 April 2013, CAMPO Ghent (BE)
BY: Jan Martens and Peter Seynaeve
WITH: Viktor Caudron and Steven Michel
MUSIC: Gospodi
TECHNICAL SUPERVISION: Bart Huybrechts
DURATION: 60 minutes
PRODUCTION: CAMPO
CO-PRODUCTION: Frascati Productions and TAKT Dommelhof, ICKamsterdam and JAN
WITH THE SUPPORT OF: the city of Antwerp
IN COLLABORATION WITH: Theater Zuidpool