Who can achieve stardom, and under what conditions?
In Josse Jnr., theater maker and performer Ahilan Ratnamohan, alongside Josse De Pauw and Etuwe Bright Junior, investigates language learning and the inevitable power dynamics that come with it. Junior is an economic migrant from Nigeria and sees theater as a final opportunity to achieve something other than working in a factory after a failed soccer career. Ahilan is a migrant from the more privileged context of Australian and Sri Lankan Tamil roots. Josse has toured the whole world as a theater and is a star in his home country.
With Josse Jnr., they explore how De Pauw’s texts—stylistically European and abstract—can take on new meanings in a different body. How can these texts and aesthetics that have largely defined the Flemish canon reach a different poetry? Is being Flemish something that can be shared? Who can achieve stardom, and under what conditions?
He has previously worked with Ahilan Ratnamohan during the Pidgin X project, which opened our 2022 festival in a cheerful celebration of differences and similarities in different languages.
Presented by Explore the North, De Harmonie & PAFFF
Agenda
Credits
Concept, direction, play | Ahilan Ratnamohan
Script & play | Josse De Pauw
Play | Etuwe Bright Junior
Dramaturgy | Petar Sarjanovic
Costumes| Anne-Catherine Kunz
Tech | Timme Afschrift & Gilles Roosen
Production Lead | Liesbet Termont
Production | LOD muziektheater & ROBIN vzw
Co-production | Theater Kampnagel Hamburg, Explore the North / PAFFF Leeuwarden
Special thanks to Monty
With the support of the tax shelter measurements of the Belgian federal government.
Tax shelter intermediary | Flanders tax shelter
Sceneography: Kurt van der Elst