The Blind Poet
The lies of history
The idea for The Blind Poet arose when Jan Lauwers visited the Great Mosque of Cordoba. During the Moorish period (711-1031) Cordoba was the commercial and cultural capital of the world. Women were in power and atheism was normal. Paris was then just a provincial town and Charlemagne was illiterate.
History is written by the victors. By men. How many lies, chance encounters and mishaps have actually determined history as we know it?
The Blind Poet travels through history by way of the family trees of all Needcompany’s members. It was discovered that everyone has a connection or similarity somewhere. One of Jan Lauwers’ ancestors was an armourer at the time of Godfrey of Bouillon and joined the crusaders. They travelled through Germany where they were received by Grace Ellen Barkey's ancestor, who was a mayor.
The Blind Poet is about strong women who throw stones and end up on the stake. About a crusader whose suit of armour is too small.
On the occasion of his creation of The Blind Poet, director Jan Lauwers and former VRT journalist Jef Lambrecht conduct a public conversation about the hysteria of history in which history repeats and redesigns itself time and again, all the while coming up with lies. More information here.
text, direction, set Jan Lauwers | with the Needcompany ensemble | music Maarten Seghers | choreography Grace Ellen Barkey | costumes Lot Lemm | assistant to the director & dramaturge Elke Janssens | production manager Chris Vanneste | technical direction Marjolein Demey | production Needcompany (Brussel) | co-production Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussel), KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen (Hannover), FIBA ‐ Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt) | support Vlaamse overheid | Performance in Brussels supported by SABAM for Culture
