Alliance of International Production Houses

How do we face death, in life and at the end of life? How do we support, mourn and farewell? What remains of a life at the end of life? With “Grief & Beauty” Milo Rau presents the second part of his Trilogy of Private Life. In the first part, Family, which premiered in 2019 just weeks before the theatres closed, he used the collective suicide of a family to show Western society on the brink. Apart from the terrible ending, there was nothing on stage but an ordinary evening: a study of small things, of private life, its beauty and emptiness. With Grief & Beauty, Milo Rau and his team are tackling a theme that has been at the heart of Rau’s work for many years: the question of farewell, grieving and death, but also of memory and solidarity in the face of the final moments. We look into a normal apartment: it is the apartment of an old man who will proceed euthanasia at the end of the play. The four actresses and actors tell us their most personal stories about death and rebirth, art and love, memory and oblivion. What is it worth living for? How can we share this loneliest venture, death, with each other? A picture of a society in search of transcendence emerges that is as concrete as it is philosophical.

Direction MILO RAU
Text MILO RAU & ENSEMBLE
Performance ARNE DE TREMERIE, ANNE DEYLGAT, PRINCESS ISATU HASSAN BANGURA, GUSTAAF SMANS, JOHANNA B. (on video) Dramaturgy CARMEN HORNBOSTEL
Coach & Dramaturgical Collaborator PETER SEYNAEVE
Set & Costume Design BARBARA VANDENDRIESSCHE
Composition ELIA REDIGER
Live Music CLÉMENCE CLARYSSE
Camera & Video Design MORITZ VON DUNGERN
Light Design DENNIS DIELS
Director’s Assistant KATELIJNE LAEVENS
Technical Production Management OLIVER HOUTTEKIET
Production Management GREET PROVÉ

Grief & Beauty is a production of NTGent in coproduction with Tandem Scène Nationale Arras-Douai, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Romaeuropa Festival / Teatro Nazionale di Genova

A project within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art as part of the intergenerational outreach initiative ALL IN – FOR AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES and Freunde und Förderer des Mousonturms e.V.

Besonderer Dank an die Familie und Freunde von Johanna B., Dr. Marc Cosyns, Experte für Sterbebegleitung – alle Kontakte mit Johanna fanden im Dialog mit ihm statt, Koen Verhofstadt, CRA von Domino und Arzt bei Vonkel asbl, Inneke Wellens, Koordinatorin der Palliativversorgung bei Domino. Wir danken allen Menschen, die ihre Geschichten über Trauer und Schönheit und ihr Fachwissen mit uns geteilt haben: Sabine Boerjan & Christian Verelst (Paradox), Sam Bogaerts, Kurt Defrancq, Katrien Demeyer, Daniël De Baeck, Viviane De Muynck, Gloria Dewulf, Barbara Drieghe, Ina Geerts, Paul Goosens, Elisabeth Ida, Prof. Dr. Mark Janse (UGent), Lilian Keersmaekers, Johan Leysen, Chris Lomme, Jef Pelgrims & Jan Barbe (Alzheimer Liga), Noami Terriere & Pepijn T’Hooft (WWF), Hilde Uitterlinden & Charles Cornette, Linda Vandeveire, Prof. Dr. Simon Van Belle, Elisabeth Van Dam, Els Van de Wauwe, Jan Van Gils, Roel & Inge Van Roosbroeck (Gemoedrust), Loes Vereycke