“For an hour you hang on every word of a man hopelessly entangled in his attempt to define himself and the world around him. A moving portrait of the Western man in search of purpose and meaning.”
#jury20
ACT 
Kris Verdonck / A Two Dogs Company & Het Zuidelijk Toneel
In ACT, Kris Verdonck explores various aspects of the relation between the human on the verge of disappearing in the work of Samuel Beckett. ACT approaches Beckett in three ways: with a monologue with Beckett texts (Stories and texts for nothing), performed by Johan Leysen, with a scientist, invited to react to Beckett and with an autonomous scenography, a possible landscape for a Beckett text.
The variety and multidisciplinary approach reflect the complexity of Beckett’s work and are at the same time an attempt to literally take apart this complexity. The triptych of Science, theatre and high-tech show, as in three acts, each a different facet of the diamond ‘Beckett’. They deepen each other’s experience: a particular way of performing brings a scientific insight to life and vice versa, a performative scenography zooms in on the underlying world of or perhaps after the actor and offers a more contemplative experience.
KaaitheaterAs a director, Kris Verdonck explores the intersections of the visual arts, theatre, performance and architecture. He found beauty in the catastrophic in Conversations (at the end of the world) and Untitled. Over the next four years, he will research the connections between Beckett’s work – in which (the) Nothing occurs – and the secrets of 14th-century Japanese No-theatre.
In his artistic practice, Kris Verdonck appeals to scientists as well as technicians, engineers and – of course – performers. So it’s no longer just the work of one dog, but the work of several dogs together. Hence the name that refers to Friedrich Torberg’s poem: A Two Dogs Company.
