This May NITE premieres The Underground, an epic new interdisciplinary piece about failure, invisibility, unimportance, and futility. I wrote the music and songs, which are performed onstage alongside two dancers, an actor, a clown, and two krumpers.
NITE (National Interdisciplinary Theater Ensemble) is the quadruple-threat of Noord Nederlands Toneel + Club Guy & Roni + Asko|Schönberg + Slagwerk Den Haag. Here’s their description of the project:
What has to happen before you feel like nothing more than a clown. A pipsqueak on the margins. The one who finally gets the cake in the face. The lowest life form on the slopes. And what has to happen before you are completely fed up with it? Unwilling to be the laughing stock anymore?
On the frayed edges of the city, on the margins of society, the Rodeo clown rebels against the role he’s been given in the Dutch Circus. With all the violence he can muster, he breaks out of the rotten system that’s trapping him in.
Will he succeed? Or will it be nothing more than an act? A funny little number in this travelling circus show that he’ll repeat again tomorrow night?
Behind-the-scenes music clips from our first rehearsals:
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Credits:
Director: Guy Weizman
Choreography: Roni Haver
Writer: Rik van den Bos
Composer: Brendan Faegre
Set Designer: Ascon de Nijs
Costumes: Maison the Faux
Cast: Sanne den Hartogh, Camilo Chapela, Tatiana Matveeva, Bram de Laere, Nathalie Alexandra Torres Kinard aka “Strange”, Michael Ques Zaalman
Musicians: Niels Meliefste, Dirge Seçil Kuran, Joost Geevers, Berber Heerema, Isa Goldschmeding, Noa Eyl, Yanna Pelser
Sound Designer: Peter Zwart
Musical dramaturg: David Dramm