Over the period between 1986 and 2020, Jan Lauwers has authored around twenty plays for the theatre. Every one of these has been brought to the stage by the legendary Needcompany ensemble, always in multiple languages. O
Lauwers’ best-known plays include ‘Isabella’s room’, ‘The Lobster Shop’, ‘Morning Song’,‘Ulrike’ and ‘The Snakesong Trilogy’, alongside many others. His entire oeuvre is essentially a quest to sketch as complete a portrait as possible of the person he is collaborating with at the time. In fact, the character and the person who brings the character to life are of equal importance to Lauwers. Lauwers’ writing really gets into the skin of his characters as individuals, always seeking to transcend contemporary dogmas when it comes to diversity and identity. In doing so, he puts human nature front and centre. Failure, love, struggle, and woes big and small are always given a special place.
©Vibe Stalpaert
©Vibe Stalpaert
One of Jan Lauwers' “muses” is Gonzalo Cunill, with whom he has won numerous awards, such as the Obie in New York. The intense friendship between these two men led them to dive critically into the past. A recapitulation of a past. A recapitulation of a past.
A SUBLIME MISTAKE - is a new character based on all the somewhat scattered male characters in Jan Lauwers' work, and is played by Gonzalo Cunill.
Gonzalo is a man who is alone in the world. Alone, but not lonely. He is the complete opposite of me: ex-boxer, swims two kilometers a day, is slow, quiet, terrifyingly calm. A handsome, virile anti-macho. He refuses to give in to the restlessness that lurks in every person. And that restlessness is precisely what drives my life. Les extrêmes se touchent.
An intimate portrait of a man who observes the world with surprise, and does not understand why he is part of it.
NEEDCOMPANY
Needcompany is an art house founded in 1986 by artists Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey. Together with Maarten Seghers (artist linked to Needcompany since 2001) they run the house, support a very diverse number of artists and host their artistic work there: theater, dance, performance, visual arts, texts, etc. Their creations have been presented on the most important stages in the world.
JAN LAUWERS
Jan Lauwers (Antwerp, 1957) is an artist who works with almost all media. In the last thirty years he became known above all for his innovative theatrical work with the company Needcompany, founded in Brussels in 1986. In parallel he has developed an important visual work that has been exhibited at BOZAR (Brussels), McaM (Shanghai), among others. From 2009 to 2014 Needcompany was artist in residence at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Lauwers was awarded the Decoration of Honor in gold for his Services to the Republic of Austria in 2012. In 2014, he received the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale for his entire career, and is the first Belgian to obtain such recognition in the theater category. In 2018, he presented at the Salzburg Festival “The Coronation of Poppea”, his first opera conducting work, followed by Luigi Nono's “Intolleranza 1960” (Salzburg Festival, 2021) and György Ligeti's “Le Grand Macabre” (Vienna Opera, 2023).
“I am increasingly aware that all the theatrical texts I have written are an ambiguous self-portrait. Ambiguous, because I have always been looking for the great stories of our time. One of the most important functions of art is not to forget the past. So why talk about myself? I find it arrogant and pretentious for art to deal with its maker, and yet I can't help it. My interest in history and great stories goes hand in hand with self-exploration and love for the human being. For all their stubbornness and sometimes intrinsic evil, human beings are the only thing worth living for. I always needed company. I need company. Friendship has always been something fundamental. And friendship makes you reckless. Friendship means love, but it also means betrayal. And here I return to the self-portrait: who am I, to think that my friendship can mean something to someone else? In this half century that I have dedicated myself intensely to art, who have I betrayed as a friend?
This text is about friendship. The three portraits that make up the story are parts of myself, based on previous works and on the friendships I have harbored throughout my work. It is also clear that Gonzalo, as a muse, was present in some corner of my atelier, smiling quietly as I wrote the text.
The sublime fault is about the desperation of an artist who did not manage to be “cold as ice” in his creation, but always wanted to be loved again. In UN SUBLIME ERROR one of the characters says that it is much more difficult to be always angry than to hide behind a smile. With this text I have tried to see this smile not as an act of cowardice, but as a weapon to defend against the human being himself.”
GONZALO CUNILL
Gonzalo Cunill began his studies in Buenos Aires at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, alternating with various courses and seminars taught by master actors such as Raúl Serrano, Agustín Alezzo, Fernando Piernas, Jan Lauwers and Mariano Barroso. His career in Spain dates back to 1992, when he premiered the play “The sinking of the Titanic” directed by Carlos Marquerie, with whom he continues to work. He has worked with Rodrigo García, Alex Rigola and Carlota Subiros in numerous productions in Spain and abroad. At the end of the nineties he moved to Belgium and started working with Lauwers. He participated in productions such as “Calígula” and “Morning Song”, for which he won the award for best actor from the Barcelona theater critics, in “Begin the Beguine” and “Billy's Violence”. He participated in the feature film “Goldfish Game” by Jan Lauwers. His most recent work is “'Billy's Joy” (2023). In recent years, he has collaborated with director and actor Juan Navarro.
TEAM
Text and address JAN LAUWERS performance GONZALO CUNILL
Music ROMBOUT WILLEMS
Dramaturgy: ELKE JANSSENS
Production RUNE FLORYN
Pasante EMMA KANAS
It is a production of NEEDCOMPANY
co-produced by the FESTIVAL TEMPORADE ALTA (GIRONA) HEARTBREAK HOTEL (BARCELONA) LA ABADIA (MADRID)
With the support of GOBIERNO DE FLANDES
Coordinación de Needcompany PIETER D’HOOGHE, ELKE JANSSENS, RUNE FLORYN, VIBE STALPAERT, YANNCIK WOUTERS
NEEDCOMPANY
Art Direction MAARTEN SEGHERS, GRACE ELLEN BARKEY, JAN LAUWERS
Manager PIETER D’HOOGHE pieter@needcompany.org
Dramaturgy: ELKE JANSSENS elke@needcompany.org
Producción técnica RUNE FLORYN rune@needcompany.org
Tours & communication VIBE STALPAERT vibe@needcompany.org
Assistance to companies and distribution YANNICK WOUTERS yannick@needcompany.org
Distribution ELENA MARTÍNEZ elena.artesescenicas@gmail.com
Gabrielle Petitstraat 4/4, 1080 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Bruselas
www.needcompany.org