We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay is the third (and last) installment of Voetvolk | Lisbeth Gruwez’ ‘triptych of the ecstatic body’, after It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend (2012) and AH/HA (2014): performances that gained great (international) recognition.
The basic principle of the show is the concrete physiological impact of fear. In We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay, fear is studied as a biological phenomenon, not as a socio-cultural sensation. Not as acquired behaviour, but as evolutionary developed answer to the question “to fight, flight or freeze?” In We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay ‘nature’ beats ‘nurture’ – although they are sometimes each other’s nursing enemies.
Performers Lisbeth Gruwez and Wannes Labath zoom in on what fear does to a body: they incorporate the haunted look, the accelerated heart rate, the shallow breathing. According to them, fear is a body in trance, reduced to its instincts.
In his turn, Maarten Van Cauwenberghe uses the unstable breathing patterns as the foundation of his soundscape, creating suspense as well as restfulness – not uncommonly at the very same time.
CREDITS
Concept & choreography: Lisbeth Gruwez
Composition, sound design & assistance: Maarten Van Cauwenberghe
Performance: Lisbeth Gruwez & Wannes Labath
Dramaturgy: Bart Van den Eynde
Repetitor: Lucius Romeo-Fromm
Light design: Harry Cole & Caroline Mathieu
Technical director: Thomas Glorieux
Scenography: Marie Szersnovicz, Lisbeth Gruwez & Maarten Van Cauwenberghe
Costume design: Alexandra Sebbag
Styling: Lisbeth Gruwez
Production & tour manager: Arnaud Vanrafelghem
Communication assistant: Daan Borloo
Production: Voetvolk vzw
Coproduction: Festival d’Avignon, La Bâtie – Festival de Genève, the Royal Flemish Theatre, Le Phare – Centre Choregraphique National du Havre Normandie, Theater Im Pumpenhaus, Les Brigittines, TANDEM Arras-Douai, Weimar Kunstfest, Julidans, MA Scène Nationale – Pays de Montbéliard & Troubleyn|Jan Fabre.
Residencies: Troubleyn|Jan Fabre, Arts Centre BUDA, STUK & Les Brigittines
Supported by: kc NONA, the Flemish Government & the Flemish Community Commission