danzon_eng

© Jan Versweyveld A large empty space in the middle of the stage; the floor of the space is orange-red, near the center of the space stands a white pedestal sink. This is Jude's domain. Jude's painful past comes to life here, and all the characters who made him suffer appear here. In the present where the play takes place, Jude repeatedly leans against the foot of the sink sitting in front of it on the floor and cuts into his arms. The blood falls to the floor; its orange-red color comes from being bathed in Jude's blood over the years. The narrow long spaces around this large empty space on the stage are the places of Jude's friends; the kitchen of the house where he was adopted at a late age, the architect’s office, the painter's workshop, the doctor's office. All these spaces surround the gap in the middle, just as all of his friends surround and embrace Jude, sensing his injury and trying to avoid him from his pains. Each one of them; one as his lover by car...

© Jan Versweyveld A wide corridor-like void in the middle of the playing area that goes deep backwards. The void gets twice as deep with the reflection in the mirror covering the very back. It is as if the depth of the space brings with it the depth of time. Traces of the past in the depths of the space seem to be visible… Chairs are lined up on both sides of this void. The members of the family whose story is told in the play sit on these chairs from time to time. Even if all the family members are seated, there are chairs which remain empty. Maybe those empty chairs mark the family members before and after the story that we haven't seen, expanding the time of the story… Behind the chairs are large transparent surfaces with grotesque and primitive face figures drawn on them with mud. Maybe they are the ghosts of the past… The servant of the family brings chairs from both sides to the front and middle line of the void. The couple, in their 90s, in the center of the story sit on tho...

© jan versweyveld  nowadays, a presidential election evening. it's just over an hour and a half before the results are announced. the politician who is highly expected to win the election comes together with his family for a dinner in the conference hall being temporarily transformed to the campaign center. the politician is understanding and loving towards his family, and ambitious, honest, and confident. he also believes in transparency so that he will permit the investigation into the cause of death of his predecessor when he is elected. while the excitement of the results of the election is being experienced, the facts about the politician's past remaining hidden even from himself are revealed one by one. when the election countdown is over, at the peak of the tension, the moment when it is announced that the politician has won the election and the moment when he realizes the hardest truth about his past coincide. the politician's name is oedipus. yes, king oedipus, the...