The screaming man
Luk Perceval returns to Flanders – with an opera about the First World War
von Johan Thielemans
Erschienen in: Arbeitsbuch 2019: Luk Perceval (07/2019)
I would divide the artistic career of Luk Perceval into three major periods. First came the Flemish period with the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie (Blue Monday Company) in Antwerp (1984 to 1997), a “theatre on the margins” as we call them in Flanders, but one that found great success with audiences and critics. This was followed in 1997 by his management of the city theatre in Antwerp, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg (KNS), to which Luk Perceval gave a new name: Het Toneelhuis (The Theater House).
Around the same time he published his magnum opus in Ghent – “Ten Oorlog” (To War) based on Shakespeare’s royal dramas in a text version by Tom Lanoye. Perceval poured the entirety of his experience as a theatre-maker into this marathon, from which he and Lanoye later developed the German version “Schlachten!” (Battles!), which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1999. It is at this point that the second phase of Luk Perceval’s artistic career begins, one in which he is increasingly active in Germany. He was engaged at the Schaubühne in Berlin and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, where he became a house director. This period saw him increasingly gaining recognition as a director, with...
