En avant, marche !

 REVUE DE PRESSE
FRANK VAN LAEKE/
ALAIN PLATEL
En avant, marche !
04 – 06.09.2015
En avant, marche! : un hommage pittoresque à l'esprit des fan...
http://www.bscnews.fr/201506234872/theatre/en-avant-march...
En avant, marche! : un hommage pittoresque à
l'esprit des fanfares
Détails Publication : mardi 23 juin 2015 13:33

Par Julie Cadilhac - Bscnews.fr/ En 2012, le
musée gantois Huis van Alijin avait monté une
exposition qui donnait à voir des photographies et
des pièces du patrimoine d'hier et d'aujourd'hui
autour du thème de la fanfare. Les metteurs en
scène Frank Van Laecke et Alain Platel ont décidé
à leur tour de rendre hommage à la tradition de
ces associations musicales. Sept musiciens et
quatre comédiens, inspirés par la musique XIX et
XXeme siècles, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Giuseppe
Verdi ou encore Gustav Mahler, y jouent une
partition, souvent mélancolique, résolument singulière.
Chaotique ou ordonné, solennel ou familier, entraînant ou languissant, les multiples visages d'une
troupe se dessinent et s'effacent au gré des minutes passées en sa compagnie. Truffée d'inventivité,
cette pièce est véritablement un "objet" à contempler et à entendre dans lesquels la scénographie
jouant sur plusieurs niveaux met en exergue des fenêtres de vie, les costumes et la présence des
majorettes accentuent le côté nostalgique et désuet. L'amour, le sexe, la fraternité, les adieux, la
plaisanterie, la joie d'être ensemble..Ici c'est le pouls de la vie qui bat la mesure, peut-être avec un
tempo qui mériterait d'être davantage enlevé...mais ce qui est sûr, c'est qu'il bat avec conviction et
justesse et l'on se surprend souvent à rester contemplatif devant les envolées lyriques et truculentes de
cette communauté d'êtres réunis pour l'amour de la musique et de la fête.
Si l'on ne comprend pas bien toutefois la nécessité de la vulgarité des majorettes qui affichent sur le
plateau une image féminine d'un manque d'élégance et de tenue affligeant - qui n'apporte rien au
propos -, l'acteur principal et sa bedaine de circonstances charme par son côté caméléon qui
superpose les langues, jongle de l'interprétation vocale à la danse, du clown à l'acrobatie. Les sept
musiciens principaux forment également un chœur complice et attrayant, tantôt témoins passifs des
pulsations de vie qui envahissent le plateau, tantôt acteurs de cette comédie dramatique.
Une parade théâtrale et musicale qui séduira tous les nostalgiques et lassera sans doute tous ceux qui
n'adhèrent pas à la propension flamande au lâcher-prise et au franc parler.
En avant, marche!
Mise en scène : Frank Van Laecke et Alain Platel
Composition et direction musicale : Steven Prengels
Créé et joué par :
Chris Thys, Griet Debacker, Hendrik Lebon, Wim Opbrouck, Gregory Van Seghbroeck (basse tuba),
Jan D’Haene (trompette), Jonas Van Hoeydonck (trompette), Lies Vandeburie (bugle), Niels Van
Heertum (euphonium), Simon Van Hueting (cor), Witse Lemmens (percussion)
et le collectif Fanfares d’Oc : la Fanfare du Comptoir, Lorkes 974, la Fanfare Toto, Chofar away, Les
1 sur 3
27.08.15 12:21
En avant, marche! : un hommage pittoresque à l'esprit des fan...
http://www.bscnews.fr/201506234872/theatre/en-avant-march...
Brigades du Cuivre, la Fanfare Paradix, la Fanfare Anti-Stress, la Fanfare des Goulamas.
Dramaturgie : Koen Haagdorens
Interprétation du paysage sonore enregistré :
KMV De Leiezonen sous la direction de Diederik De Roeck
Assistance à la mise en scène : Steve De Schepper
Éclairage : Carlo Bourguignon
Son : Bartold Uyttersprot
Scénographie : Luc Goedertier
Costumes : Marie ‘Costume’ Lauwers
Réalisation costumes : atelier NTGent conduit par An De Mol
Régisseurs plateau : Stefan Jansen, Wim Van de Cappelle
Direction de production : Marieke Cardinaels, Valerie Desmet
Responsable de tournée : Steve De Schepper
Contact : www.fransbrood.com
Photo : Stephan Vanfleteren
Coproduction : Printemps des Comédiens
Les dates:
Les 22 et 23 juin 2015 au Printemps des Comédiens - Montpellier - Domaine d'Ô
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Les Fausses Confidences de Luc Bondy: mais où est passé le marivaudage ?
L'oiseau vert : un enchantement théâtral!
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Benjamin Lazar : Le Dibbouk, un ambitieux projet à alléger d'urgence
Teahouse : Comment le Pays du milieu intègre le marionnettiste et sa culture ?
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27.08.15 12:21
EIF 2015, En Avant, Marche!, King’s Theatre, Review | Edin...
http://www.edinburghguide.com/festival/2015/edinburghintern...
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EdinburghGuide » Edinburgh's Festivals » Festival 2015 Reviews
EIF 2015, En Avant, Marche!, King’s
Theatre, Review
By
Irene Brown - Posted on
25 August 2015
RELATED EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL
FESTIVAL NEWS
EIF 2015: Max Richter –
Recomposed/Memoryhouse, Edinburgh
Playhouse, Review 26 Aug '15
EIF 2015: Rudolf Buchbinder: Beethoven
Piano Sonatas, Playfair Library, Review 25
Aug '15
EIF 2015, En Avant, Marche!, King’s
Show details
Theatre, Review 25 Aug '15
Venue: King's Theatre
EIF 2015: Mitsuko Uchida in Recital, The
Company: les ballets C de la B, NTGent
Usher Hall, Review 25 Aug '15
Running time: 90mins
EIF 2015: Lanark A Life in Three Acts,
Production: Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke(directors), Koen
Haagdorens (dramaturg), Steven Prengels (composer and musical
director), KMV De Leiezonen(music performance for soundscape),
Carlo Bourguignon (lighting design), Bartold Uyttersprot (sound
design), Luc Goedertier (set design), Marie Lauwers (costume)
Lyceum, Review 24 Aug '15
Performers: Chris Thys, Griet Debacker, Henrik Lebom, Wim
Opbrouck(creators and performers), Gregory Van Seghbroeck (bass
tuba), Jan D’Haene (trumpet), Jonas Van Hoeydonck (trumpet), Lies
Vandeburie (bugle), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium), Simon Hueting
(horn), Witse Lemmens (drums), Dalkeith and Monktonhall Band,
Steven Prengels (conductor)
Video: Brass Band Playing Joy Division on
A wheezing elderly bandsman practises his one moment of glory
with the cymbals to a tape of the rehearsal piece before his
fellow amateur players arrive. With Tatiesque observation, the
chairs are noisily clacked in to place by the early arrivals and
slowly the buffoonery starts.
The Belgian contemporary dance collective, a ballet company
with no ballerinas with the aptly Magrittesque name les ballets C
EIF 2015: Anna Calvi and Heritage
Orchestra, The Hub, Review 23 Aug '15
Canal Boat 23 Aug '15
EIF 2015: Lo Real / Le Reel / The Real,
Festival Theatre, Review 21 Aug '15
EIF 2015: Marriage of Figaro, Festival
Theatre, Review 20 Aug '15
EIF 2015: Paul Bright's Confessions Of A
Justified Sinner, Queen's Hall, Review 20
Aug '15
LATEST FESTIVAL NEWS & INFO
de la B, makes its Edinburgh début with their latest piece of
17 Border Crossings, Summerhall, Fringe
radical musical theatre.
review 26 Aug '15
En Avant, Marche! peeks behind the formality of uniforms and
Feast, Zoo Sanctuary, Review 26 Aug '15
exposes the human beings with their foibles. It is a delightfully
EIF 2015: Max Richter –
anarchic unbuttoning of what lies beneath the façade of order
Recomposed/Memoryhouse, Edinburgh
performed with humour and levity in an entertaining metaphor
Playhouse, Review 26 Aug '15
for life.
Edinburgh Book Festival: Janice Galloway,
The company’s inclusive philosophy allows not just an eclectic
Sex Life & Parenthood, Review 26 Aug '15
choice of recognised music from Elgar and Holst to Sister Sledge
We This Way, Summerhall, Review 26 Aug
and Abba but incorporates leftfield methods of casting. For this
'15
show, local brass bands are used as they tour. In keeping with
Current Location, Summerhall, Review 26
the company’s philosophy, they exemplify community spirit and
Aug '15
the bringing together of a range of age groups. In this case it is
Paperwork 2, Fringe Venue 208 (Edinburgh
the Dalkeith and Monktonhall Band who provide beautiful round
1 sur 2
27.08.15 11:29
EIF 2015, En Avant, Marche!, King’s Theatre, Review | Edin...
http://www.edinburghguide.com/festival/2015/edinburghintern...
swooping sounds as they step to a finely choreographed slow
Ski Club), Review 26 Aug '15
circular march. The band members are asked their occupations
Vanity Bites Back, Gilded Balloon Study,
by Wim Opbrouck in a casual and pleasant exposure of the real
Review 26 Aug '15
lives behind the disguise of costume though the surtitled version
of sexting between him and Chris Thys may have subsequently
caused some discomfort!
Edinburgh Book Festival: Roy Hattersley, In
Praise of Equality 26 Aug '15
EIF 2015: Rudolf Buchbinder: Beethoven
This multi lingual performance takes place against a big
Piano Sonatas, Playfair Library, Review 25
backdrop of beaten bronze with random rectangular black gaps
Aug '15
where some whacky action takes place over the piece. There is a
surreal joy in the conducting of the slow donning of uniforms at
More Edinburgh News
one end of the spectrum with the strutting of the gold laméd
overtly sexual older cheerleaders at the other. From carnival
abandon to a group of Presbyterian like Morris men this unusual
show exemplifies the disconnect between appearances and
realities.
les ballets C de la B believe in uniting not dividing, while
respecting the individual and remind us music can come from
anything and be anywhere. Who could argue with that? A call to
Forward March! fae the guid folk o Flanders is one to be
followed.
Inspired by the performances of En Avant, Marche! EIF organised
a city-wide day of free performances on Sunday 23rd August
called Fanfare involving Scotland’s brass bands.
24-25August at 8pm
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27.08.15 11:29
En Avant, Marche! at Edinburgh festival review – mortality ta...
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/25/en-avant-mar...
En Avant, Marche! at Edinburgh festival
review – mortality tale with a brimming
heart
King’s theatre, Edinburgh With a glorious sense of chaos, this production
celebrates the community surrounding a dying trombonist with eloquence and a
deep sense of fun
Lyn Gardner
Tuesday 25 August 2015 16.15 BST
We all eventually march into the darkness, but the elderly former trombone player at
the heart of this often exquisitely beautiful piece, created by Frank Van Laecke and
Alain Platel, does it with a brass band at his heel. A production that swoops between
high and low culture and combines concert, theatre and dance in one categorydefying package, this is a show about community that places a community band – the
Dalkeith and Monktonhall Brass Band – at its sweaty, brimming heart.
To be honest it’s not always entirely clear what is happening, but what we do know is
that the local brass band has come together to rehearse, and that it might be the final
time for Wim Opbrouck’s dying former trombonist, a man who can no longer make
music because of the cancer in his mouth. Over the course of the next 90 minutes we
see the orchestra, a group of individuals – solicitors, nursery nurses and pension
administrators – brought together into a single entity, yet still expressing their own
internal desires and rich emotional lives. In every insecure middle-aged woman there
is a twirling drum majorette. Even the dying have dreams and desires.
As in so much of Platel’s work for Les Ballets C de la B it feels as if all human life is
presented on stage. You never know quite where to look. What is happening around
the edges is always as intriguing as what is taking centre stage. Even putting out the
chairs in the hall becomes a fascination. It’s a show in which the gaps speak as
eloquently as the action and messy humanity spills across the stage. Then they start
to play and become one.
Even at 90 minutes the show is over-extended, and at times it is too bound up in its
own internal world to let the audience in. But it is so deeply grained that it becomes
absorbing.
Platitudes become philosophy in a show that echoes Pina Bausch (“dance, dance or
we are lost” becomes “play, play or we are lost”), but also Pirandello (The Man with
the Flower in his Mouth) and even Abba (Thank You for the Music). It celebrates the
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27.08.15 11:26
En Avant, Marche! at Edinburgh festival review – mortality ta...
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/25/en-avant-mar...
power of community and the importance of playing in harmony. Because, let’s face it,
the rest is silence.
At King’s theatre until 25 August. Box office: 0131-473 2000.
More reviews
Topics
Edinburgh festival 2015
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27.08.15 11:26
En avant, marche!, Edinburgh International Festival, review
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/what-to-see/edinburgh-201...
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Edinburgh 2015: En avant, marche!, King's Theatre, review:
'self-indulgent'
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EN AVANT, MARCHE! AT THE KINGS THEATRE, EDINBURGH CREDIT: PHILE DEPREZ
By M
Maarrk
kB
Brroow
wn
n
25 AUGUST 2015 • 11:37AM
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27.08.15 11:26
En avant, marche!, Edinburgh International Festival, review
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/what-to-see/edinburgh-201...
The city of Ghent in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, has made an
extraordinary contribution to the contemporary performing arts. The city has a population of
less than quarter-of-a-million, yet it boasts many of the biggest names in European theatre,
dance and performance, such as experimental theatre companies Victoria and Ontroerend
Goed (the latter of which is currently performing A Game of You as part of the Traverse
Theatre's Edinburgh Fringe programme).
In En avant, marche! the Edinburgh International Festival brings together two of Ghent's most
important performing arts companies, NTGent and les Ballets C de la B, with the Dalkeith and
Monktonhall Brass Band from the east of Scotland. Brass bands, the piece seems to suggest,
are fascinating mini-communities which swim against the tide of atomisation and
individuation that characterises western societies in the 21st century.
At the outset, as the fictional Flemish band's declining and disappointed cymbalist shambles
onto the stage to begin a humorous, solo rehearsal, the show has a promising, Beckettian
dimension. Superb performer Wim Opbrouck appears like a cosmopolitan, multilingual
Krapp, reflecting back on his best years, but still very much driven by an inner fire.
This contemplative character is joined by colleagues, ranging from two gold-clad, ageing
majorettes to amorous, young male musicians with a taste for older women. The scene seems
set for an affecting exploration of such themes as sex, death, ageing and our society's
obsession with youth.
It isn't long, however, before co-directors Frank Van Laecke and Alain Platel whisk the piece
away from this initial promise and into self-indulgent, postmodern histrionics. The
majorettes, for instance, stand on chairs to scream their frustrations into the microphones
placed high above the band.
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27.08.15 11:26
En avant, marche!, Edinburgh International Festival, review
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/what-to-see/edinburgh-201...
En avant, marche! CREDIT: PHILE DEPREZ
Opbrouck meanders, shoeless, between the musicians, his obvious talents squandered on
speeches that are mired in the postmodern obsession with "irony" and cultural relativism. His
pointless eclecticism includes the lyrics of Sister Sledge's 1979 dance hit Lost in Music, some
lines of Dylan Thomas, and a gargling performance of God Save the Queen. It's all depressingly
reminiscent of Flemish "avant-garde" theatre maker Jan Fabre at his worst.
Noël Coward: 15 great
quotes

View gallery
If the dominant performative element irritates, the Dalkeith and Monktonhall Brass Band
plays splendidly. A gorgeous piece of Dvorak towards the show's conclusion reminds us that
the only truly emotive aspect of the production has come from the Scottish musicians. Which,
of course, is ironic.
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27.08.15 11:26
Interview: Frank Van Laecke: En Avant, Marche!: Les Ballets...
http://www.tvbomb.co.uk/2015/07/interview-frank-van-laecke/
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Article Information
Written By Irina Glinski
17 July 2015
1 Comment
Categories:
Dance > EIF > EIF2015 > Features > Interview
Tags: EIF 2015, En Avant Marche, Frank Van Laecke, Les Ballets C de la B
Interview: Frank Van Laecke
Alain Platel & Frank Van Laecke (Photo: Luk Monsaert)
I’ll hold my hands up and admit it: I am really not up on my Belgian culture. I’ve watched a few episodes of the (bloody
brilliant) Cordon and I am partial to a bit of Jacques Brel, but I come up empty when it comes to Flemish live art, theatre,
and performance. As such, I have absolutely no presuppositions when I delve in to the curious world of Les Ballets C de
la B, and En Avant, Marche! director Frank van Laecke.
Reading through Frank’s biography makes me a bit nervous. It’s difficult to know what type of work to expect from a man
who has directed across seemingly every art form, large scale and small, locally and internationally. Similarly, Les Ballets
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27.08.15 11:36
Interview: Frank Van Laecke: En Avant, Marche!: Les Ballets...
http://www.tvbomb.co.uk/2015/07/interview-frank-van-laecke/
C de la B have an extraordinary track record in making form-breaking work, collaborating with artists of every colour,
creed, and even species. When I ask Frank what we can expect from En Avant, Marche!, he refuses to pigeon-hole the
work: ‘I carry all of my experiences with me, and take every opportunity to learn. I think it’s a mix of everything, of
theatre, dance, and music. The main actor in the piece is music, and what it can do in our lives.’ He goes on to give me
something more concrete: the central arc of the play is a brass band dealing with the serious illness of one of its members;
the man is saying farewell to the group, and they are saying farewell to him. A simple conceit, perhaps, but one that holds
a reflective mirror up to society. ‘If you read En Avant, Marche! as a funeral march,’ Frank poses, ‘it is not all about
sadness. It can also be about celebrating the end of something. It’s a consolation.’
Frank is curious in this punctuating role that the brass band often seems to play in life: ‘The fact that the band is there at
the most important times in life, at a funeral, at a wedding – it is very telling. At these key moments, they are there, and
we stand still.’ He beautifully recalls the moment when he, co-director and founder of Les Ballets C de la B Alain Platel,
and composer Steven Prengels first visited a brass band rehearsal: ‘We were moved by the mix of people – there was a
baker, a doctor, so many different people, and they all came together one evening to do one thing, to create music
together. All of the private storylines disappear, all of the private sorrows. The songs that came out of the brass band in
that moment were so beautiful, so inspiring, so touching. We understood we have to make something about that feeling,
that collectivity. The world was standing still, whilst they were all there to create something together as a group.’ He is
interested in these rare moments of collective placidity. ‘In a world that moves ever faster, sometimes you have to stop in
order to continue. This is the balance we try to reach. Trying to find our place in the community. Thinking about what it
means for you and your group when you have to leave.’
And so, I begin to better understand what is at the core of En Avant, Marche!: community and stillness. Community not
just as the heart of the piece, but also a lived reality for those involved with the performance. Frank describes the
chemistry shared between the creative team and performers as ‘what life should be about’. As with Gardenia, his previous
collaboration with Les Ballets C de la B, En Avant, Marche! is devised entirely from scratch. Long days and weeks were
spent in the rehearsal room, sharing ideas, forging the beating heart of the piece. ‘It’s a very heavy way of working. You
are falling on nothing but each other. You are full of doubts, but doubt is so important: it is the understanding that nothing
comes easily.’ At every stop of the tour, they will work with a different native brass band, with each member bringing
their own stories and experiences, creating what he describes as ‘a living performance’. It is an enormous challenge, but
one that he seems very excited by; ‘It’s fantastic that it is so alive, but this also makes it vulnerable. Sometimes it could go
wrong!’ But I can’t help but feel that it is this vulnerability that makes the piece so human, and so accessible.
And so I still don’t really know what to expect, in terms of mechanics and words and visuals and plot. But I know that the
team behind En Avant, Marche! are setting out to move us, to disturb us, to make us doubt ourselves. It’s that moment that
is so special in theatre, the phenomenological experience of an audience coming together innocently and optimistically to
share something. As Frank says so beautifully, ‘In the end, we all do the same things: we ask people to love us, and our
work. I will continue to try to understand and love what I make. It’s the bottom line of what we are doing.’
And I buy in to that one hundred percent.
En Avant, Marche! | Festival 2015
En Avant, Marche! is @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, on Mon 24 and Tue 25 Aug 2015 (part of Edinburgh
International Festival)
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1er septembre 2015, page 20