Army

performance
In Leger (Army), the young soldier Berk has returned from a mission. In the war, he lost his friend and comrade Simon Bouwman. When Simon Bouwman’s father asks Berk to accompany him back to the place where Simon died – he wants to experience and understand his deceased son’s last moments – Berk staunchly refuses. After all, he has already been returning to this terrible event in his nightmares. The elder Bouwman helps Berk get back into action in his dream, and to accept himself. He orders Berk to let Simon go, and to carry on. In this way, Bouwman himself might be able to move on.

design
Berk has buried himself in his room: lonely, confused, and trapped by the trauma of war. We created a narrow fluorescent yellow shaft that runs across the full width of the stage, evoking various associations: a trench, a urinal, a large coffin, a space full of madness and constriction. Berk can hardly stand upright. When he lashes out against the father of his deceased friend, he kicks a hole in the wall. Sand flows into the space. This clinical, chemical chamber has now been contaminated by this earthly desert sand. The sand begins to scatter about, and becomes uncontrollable. Berk’s desire to break out of his nightmare only makes it worse. Very slow light transitions in different colours enhance the hallucinatory experience.