DO NOT LOOK BACK WITH REGRET
A plea for mourning in times of change
Last year, more than ever before, we were confronted by our mortality. The vulnerability of a body, but also of life on earth itself, was visible everywhere.
In DO NOT LOOK BACK WITH REGRET, the director Davy Pieters invites you to consider this. In a visual and filmic production, we see two women (performed by Marlies Heuer and Klára Alexová) in a process of letting go, grief and the search for comfort. What if you are confronted with loss? Where is your refuge if the end of the planet earth is in sight? Music by Jimi Zoet (URLAND)..
Davy Pieters: ‘It’s about seeing what we don’t want to see. Our relationship with mortality is not the same as 18 months ago. How do we relate to loss? How do we create the space to stop and process it?’
Davy has previously made the productions The Unpleasant Surprise and How to Build a Universe at Theater Rotterdam. The first was selected with Davy’s How Did I Die in 2018 for the Venice Biennale and How to Build a Universe won the VSCD Prize for Mime in 2019. DO NOT LOOK BACK WITH REGRET, was once again nominated for the VSCD Prize for Mime 2021.
Mime jury: “The visual language of this black box performance is as sublimated as it is overwhelming. Blackouts separate the scenes into cinematic shots, in which time seems to jump forward or backward. All the while black ashes are falling down steadily, slowly covering the stage. Varja Klosse’s sparse lighting design is magical, and Jimi Zoet’s soundscape tingles and thunders. The stillness of the closing scene, with a chair and a blanket, speaks of both an intimate togetherness, and a farewell. Here a grand, universal story is told with minimal resources.”
Davy Pieters’ work is characterised by an extremely visual, physical and filmic style. Her productions are about people in a world that is fast changing because of technological development and the media.
Trailer
Teaser
Registration
If you want to see the registration, you can send a password request to marketing@theaterrotterdam.nl
Reviews
“Davy Pieters offers a strong picture of grief and consolation in 'Do not look back with regret.”
★★★★★, NRC Handelsblad, Marijn Lems
“A tender and refined performance.”
Het Parool, Hans Smit
“A non-verbal work that claws into you for fifty minutes.”
Theaterkrant, Sander Janssens
“Wordlessly, but by using ingenious lighting and an intense electronic sound track, Pieters creates an abstract world.”
★★★ De Volkskrant, Vincent Kouters
Link to French Article and Review in Journal Ventilo, click here
Team
concept, direction & stage design Davy Pieters performance Klára Alexová, Marlies Heuer music Jimi Zoet lighting design Varja Klosse advice Anoek Nuyens costumes Karin van der Leeuw and Erik Bosman technical Peter Leeuwenburgh, Andi Krijgsman and John Thijssen production Andrea van Bussel, Anne van Buren scenery sponsorship Stout Perspex marketing Dieke van der Spek, Nicole Hoven, Robin Laurens
DO NOT LOOK BACK WITH REGRET is a part of ACT: Art, Climate, Transition, a European cooperation project on ecology, climate change and social transition. In an era of climate breakdown, pandemics, mass extinction and growing inequalities, we join our forces in a project on hope: connecting broad perspectives with specific, localised possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we ACT.
Contact
For more information you can contact Maurice Dujardin, Managing Director Artistic Affairs, or Melih Gencboyaci TR/ ACT curator.