An Invitation to Ghent
Lesson learned: never trust the GPS in the rental car, or Google Maps for that matter, when navigating a van full of our set, costumes, and make-up to a small theatre in the car-free centre of town. It will only lead you in circles around your destination, in our case the Minardschouwburg in the Belgian city of Ghent, until one of the theatre technicians tells you to turn off the digital helpers and simply drive to the corner up the road and then make a right turn.
Minardshouwburg in Ghent during the day.
In the wake of winning the award for best production at FEATS 2024 in Antwerp, the Hamburg Players received an invitation to perform Love/Sick at the prestigious “Landjuweelfestival” in late October. The annual event, set in a different Belgian city every year, is organized by Opendoek, the national amateur theatre association for Flemish theatre.
What an honour to perform in the beautiful Minardschouwburg on the opening night of the festival. And what a treat to work with Michael and Lennard, the light and sound team at the theatre, as well as everyone working for Opendoek.
Not gonna lie: being on stage was an absolutely wonderful experience, too!
Behind the scenes
Spending the entire day behind the scenes of the theatre was an amazing experience, both due to the huge dressing rooms (at least one of the cast members may or may not have shed a tear at the sheer size, and the leopard print make-up chair*) and the state-of-the art light and sound equipment.
Something we do not get do everyday: a Q&A session with the audience after the performance (see above: “Achter Klap”).
Next up: A Roundtable discussion
It’s Sunday morning, the day after our very well received show, and we are invited to a roundtable discussion on the topic of theatre translations in the beautiful NTGent (Nederlands Toneel Gent). During our performance the previous evening, the Opendoek organisers had tried out a surtitling system with a Dutch translation of Love/Sick running over our background projection, giving people who do not feel secure in English a chance to enjoy John Cariani’s wonderfully quirky and moving scenes. Currently, the play is being translated into Dutch by Nicole Vandenhove and will be performed by a Belgian theatre group next season.
Thanks to everyone at Opendoek for having us at your amazing festival.
Ghent by night.
Photos: Ethan Duffy, Markus Frenzl, Madeleine Lange, Luka Tikvicki
*Because this chair deserves to be seen:
Getting ready for the stage in style!