In 2008 Jan Fabre created Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day, a theatre/dance solo, for the Croatian performer, Ivana Jozic. In 2010, Artemis Stavridi and Fabre created a new version for an extensive international tour starting that year.
The title is taken from the legendary 1967 hit, “Ode to Billy Joe”, by Bobby Gentry. Speculation is rife about the open storyline in this mysterious country song, even today.
Ode to Billy Joe tells the tale of a suicide. A teenage girl is having dinner with her family. Her mother announces that Billy Joe jumped off a bridge to his death. While the family members dish up memories of Billy Joe, discuss day-to-day worries and pass the food, the mother happens to notice that her daughter has lost her appetite. Gradually, and against this backdrop, curiosity about the untold part of the story gets the upper hand. What did the young teenage girl and Billy Joe throw off the bridge together? Were they secretly seeing one another?

The theme of forbidden love and suicide constitutes the starting point of the creation of Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day for Jan Fabre. A swelteringly hot, dusty kind of day. A story about loving and letting go, about jumping into the endless unknown.

Jan Fabre opted to write Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day in the form of a letter from a man to his beloved. The outcome is a truly personal text, which emphasizes the right to dispose of one’s own life, specifically the end of one’s life. A text that bears witness to empathy and respect for live, love and death.

text, scenography and direction: Jan Fabre
choreography: Jan Fabre, Ivana Jozic
dramaturgy: Miet Martens
performer: Artemis Stavridi
composer: Tom Tiest
song: ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ by Bobby Gentry
(C/A) – Northridge Music Co / Universal- MCA Music Holland BV
costume design: Louise Assomo
light design: Jan Fabre, Harry Cole
production: Troubleyn/Jan Fabre, Antwerp
co-production: Festival d’Avignon, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Napoli Teatro Festival, Zagreb Youth Theatre & Theatre Festival