BigMouth for Adelaide Festival
A sell-out hit at the Edinburgh Festival in 2012 and with successful seasons later in Europe and the UK, the Australian premiere of SKaGeN’s BigMouth is to be exclusively presented by the Adelaide Festival. The production is with Richard Jordan Productions Ltd in a co-production with De Tijd and Stuk.
In his solo performance, BigMouth’s Belgian director/performer, Valentijn Dhaenens uses unrelenting energy and five microphones to ingeniously weave together fragments of the most memorable speeches in history. In doing so, he compares the methods and madness of mankind throughout the ages.
BigMouth demonstrates how choosing the right words can turn even the weakest arguments into those that can achieve anything, from winning world power to securing the hand of a beloved.
From the rousing to the inept, from Socrates to Osama Bin Laden, from Mohammed Ali to George Bush, BigMouth reveals that the tricks of rhetoric have not changed.
‘This is a must-see show,’ says Adelaide Festival Director, David Sefton. ‘Valentijn gives an outstanding performance in a truly inspired use of monologues drawn from history.’
Valentijn Dhaenens co-founded theatre company SKaGeN with classmates from the renowned Antwerp Conservatory, directed by Ivo Van Hove (directing Roman Tragedies in the 2014 Adelaide Festival) and Dora van der Groen. SKaGeN’s multi-disciplinary work is influenced by television culture and novels. BigMouth is the company’s first production in Australia.
Richard Jordan Productions Ltd is a London-based UK and international production company which enjoys associations with many of the world’s leading theatres and arts organisations. Richard Jordan was recipient of a 2013 TONY award and has produced over one hundred and eighty productions in nineteen countries, including over fifty world premieres.
The Guardian (UK) said of BigMouth, ‘…it’s the juxtapositions that turn this into such a fascinating experience… Valentijn Dhaenens employs not just his voice but his entire body to examine justice, war, racism, and retribution and create a piece in which past and present are in constant dialogue…demonstrating-in one striking example- that Joseph Goebbels and the American general George S Patton can sound very different, but demand exactly the same thing.’
Lesley Reed
Images: Valentijn Dhaenens. Photographer: Maya Wilsens
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246
Dates: Thurs, Feb 27, 8pm; Sat, Mar 1, 10 pm; Sun, Mar 2, 7.30 pm; Mon, Mar 3, 8pm.
Venue: Queen’s Theatre, Playhouse Lane, Adelaide.
Tickets: $25-$39.
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