A speech can be a mighty weapon. Throughout the centuries it has enthused countless masses and galvanized them into action, for better or for worse. It has unleashed revolutions and fueled wars. Just by the power of words. But a speech does not only enthuse the hearers, often it also transposes the speaker into a state of trance. Then he loses himself in a stream of words, in an obsessive, ecstatic way of speaking. The power of a speech often depends on the trance of the speaker.
In It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend Lisbeth Gruwez dances the trance of that ecstatic speechifying. In the process, she takes advantage of fragments from a speech by the ultraconservative American televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.
Initially the parlance is friendly and pacifying, but from his compulsive desire to persuade transpires growing despair. Eventually it exposes its deepest nature: violence.
It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend is the first installment of Lisbeth Gruwez’ triptych of the ecstatic body, also comprising AH/HA (2014) and We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay (2016).
Rarely have image, movement, light and sound invigorated each other so powerfully. This turns ‘It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend’ into a subtle masterpiece that has managed to entrance the jury into a nearly magical state.
– Jury Theaterfestival 2012 (a selection of the 10 best shows of the season)
CREDITS
Concept, choreography & performance: Lisbeth Gruwez
Composition, sound design & assistance: Maarten Van Cauwenberghe
Styling: Veronique Branquinho
Artistic advisor: Bart Meuleman
Light design: Harry Cole & Caroline Mathieu
Technical director: Thomas Glorieux
Thanks to: Tom de Weerdt
Production: Voetvolk vzw
Coproduction: Grand Theater Groningen, Troubleyn/Jan Fabre, Theater Im Pumpenhaus and AndWhatBeside(s)Death
Diffusion: Key Performance
With the support of: the Province of West Flanders, the Province of Antwerp, the Flemish Community and Arcadi Île-de-France/Dispositif d’accompagnements