ANOTHER SLEEPY DUSTY DELTA DAY by Jan Fabre (France, USA, Italy, Croatia)
By Stefano • Jun 9th, 2008 • Category: NaplesTheatreFestival 
ANOTHER SLEEPY DUSTY DELTA DAY
text, set-design, direction Jan Fabre
choreography Jan Fabre, Ivana Jozic
performer Ivana Jozic
production Troubleyn/Jan Fabre
coproduction Festival d’Avignon, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Napoli Teatro Festival Italia
collaboration with Aldo Miguel Grompone, Zagreb Youth Theatre & Theatre Festival (Croazia)
from 26th to 28th June
20.00
Teatro Nuovo
First Night
duration 90′
dramaturgy and assistant to Jan Fabre Miet Martens
soundscape Tom Tiest, DomXh
recordings at Ghost Town (Hemiksem,B) by Geert Vanbever
musicians Tom Tiest (guitar) Filip Vandebril ((double) bass),
deemonkeyjazz (drum), Andrew Claes (tenor sax), Vincent Brijs (baritone sax), Charlotte Saelemakers (violin), Jennifer De Keersmaeker (violin), Astrid Bossuyt (violin)
song ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ by Gentry, Bobbie (C/A) Northridge Music Co / Universal- MCA Music Holland BV
costume design Louise Assomo
singing-coach Dirk Bohnen
language coach French Anny Czupper
language coach English Tom Hannes
technical coordination Harry Cole
light design Jan Fabre / Harry Cole
technicians for creation set Bern Van Deun, Sven Van Kuijk, Geert Van der Auwera, Alexis Devos, Mikes Poppe
production/tour management Sophie Vanden Broeck
Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day is Jan Fabre’s new work that, after Naples, will make its debùt at the Festival d’Avignon. The title of the performance, as well as its creation, draw their inspiration from the famous Ode to Billy Joe (1967) by the American singer of Portoguese origin Roberta Lee Streeter (Bobbie Gentry) on the stage. Considered as one of the first country song writers and singers, Bobbie Gentry, who was a fascinating and good-looking woman with a hoarse and sensuous voice, composed innovative and original songs on the life styles and cultural values of the southern States of America. The “Delta” of the title refers to the mouth of the Mississipi river. «It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty, Delta day I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was balin’ hay And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat And Mama hollered out the back door “y’all remember to wipe your feet” And then she said “I got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge: Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”». The song is about the mysterious story of Billy Joe’s suicide, a topic that has been used as outline for the “solo” created by Fabre for Ivana Jozic, the Croatian dancer who has already worked in many other performances of the Belgian artist.
Visual artist, performer, sculptor theatrical director, choreographer, writer, Jan Fabre was born in Antwerp in 1958. He studied at the Institute for Decorative Arts and then Fine Arts at the Royal Academy. Still very young, he directed his first performance (Theatter geschreven met een K is een kater, ad Anversa), followed, in 1982, by This is theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen: a performance lasting eight hours, from sunset to dawn, that deeply impressed the audience and gave him an immediate fame. Two years later Fabre was already at the Biennale di Venezia with The power of theatrical madness, that defined his style even more clearly. In the past years Fabre has created Je suis sang (2001, performed again in 2003 and 2005): it is a diptych dedicated to the body humours that constitute our substance, it is a hymn to blood and body. The crying body dates back to 2004; it is a preliminary study for The History of Tears: the performance is focused on what Fabre calls «body tears», all secretions produced by the human body when it is sad or happy, when it wants or is afraid of something (Je suis Sang, Ange de la Mort, Quando l’uomo principale…). In 2007, Jan Fabre was asked by the Festival of Salzburg, held at the Felsenreithschule, to create the Réquiem für eine Metamorphose. Together with Chantal Akerman and Wolfgang Rihm, he recently performed I am a Mistake.
Related Posts:
Stefano is
Email this author | All posts by Stefano
