With this new production, Wim Vandekeybus is once again tackling Jan Decorte’s very personal and contrary 1999 version of Oedipus. Jan Decorte’s compact script gives Vandekeybus the opportunity to convert subconscious tensions into dance and music. The script starts at a point after the calamity has already taken place. Vandekeybus: “It would be great to make a full-length film of Bêt noir one day. In fact it’s already a perfect film script. Bêt noir is a blast. It’s precisely because Jan writes so compactly that I have the time to do other things in the production; you can do what you like with it.’

An impressive cast of 16 actors, dancers and musicians presents the tragic myth of this born anti-hero, who unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother and Vandekeybus himself plays the part of Oedipus: “As a choreographer and director, I like being in the production myself; it’s the perfect way to defend your work”.
Nine powerful dancers, all of whom have previously appeared in works by Vandekeybus, give physical colour to wordless parts and to Oedipus’ people. “I myself am not so keen on dancers who absolutely want to show that they are dancers in a play. But I do like dancers who can act in a refreshing way in a dance performance”.

Vandekeybus is once again working with the guitar virtuoso Elko Blijweert and the blues legend Roland Van Campenhout who create combination that audiences appeared to savour.

direction, choreography and scenography: Wim Vandekeybus
text: Jan Decorte
created with & performed by: Wim Vandekeybus, Ricardo Ambrozio, Elko Blijweert, Guy Dermul, Elena Fokina, Tanja Marín Friðjónsdóttir, Luke Jessop, Zebastián Méndez Marín, Máté Mészáros, Bénédicte Mottart, Aymara Parola, Jeroen Stevens, Dymitry Szypura, Willy Thomas, Roland Van Campenhout, Carly Wijs
also created with: Dawid Lorenc, Thi-Mai Nguyen, Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo
music (live): Elko Blijweert, Jeroen Stevens, Roland Van Campenhout
artistic assistant and dramaturge: Greet Van Poeck
movement assistant: Iñaki Azpillaga
lighting design: Francis Gahide, Wim Vandekeybus
sound design: Benjamin Dandoy, Antoine Delagoutte
stage technician: Davy Deschepper
styling: Isabelle Lhoas assisted by Frédérick Denis
styling atelier: Lieve Meeussen, Stephanie Croibien, Isabelle De Cannière
technical coordination: Benjamin Dandoy
stage manager: Davy Deschepper
lighting on tour: Francis Gahide
sound on tour: Benjamin Dandoy, Antoine Delagoutte
production: Ultima Vez & KVS, Brussels
coproduction: Schauspiel Köln, Cologne; Les Théâtres de la Ville, Luxembourg; with the support of Le Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne
Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Authorities & the Flemish Community Commission
of the Brussels Capital Region