This collaboration between ITA Ensemble and Hotel Modern delivers spectacular, eye-catching and unique theater

December 15, 2023

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Polish countryside envelopes its inhabitants like a warm blanket, even though it is quite primitive. The balance of power is clear, everyone knows where they stand. Then that image changes, hostility and distrust displace solidarity. With Primeval and other times, director Guy Cassiers adds an impressive family epic to his oeuvre. It is difficult that Genowefa’s husband (Chris Nietvelt) keeps not returning from the battlefield of the First World War, because she is pregnant and her body longs for love. But otherwise, little seems wrong in the fictional Polish village of Primeval, dating from 1917. There is a castle in which the – slightly religiously insane – landlord Popielski (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) resides; he represents the elite. Genowefa runs the mill and represents the middle class. With prostitute Aartje (Laura de Geest), good family men get their money’s worth. It’s not ideal, but it’s clear. This is how Primeval and Other Times begins, based on the book by Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018. The narrative is reminiscent of The Years of Annie Ernaux, previously translated into a stage performance by director Eline Arbo. But where Ernaux links the course of history to one biographical life, Tokarczuk presents that of the residents of an entire village. How did those residents fare in the course of the twentieth century? Spectacle Director Cassier turns Tokarczuk’s story with the ITA Ensemble and Hotel Modern into an overwhelming visual spectacle. The contribution of Hotel Modern is decisive in this. This company has made its mark by building live dollhouse-like models full of people and animals that become backgrounds and foregrounds with the help of cameras and life-size projections. In Primeval and other times, Hotel Modern creates a kind of life-size viewing boxes in different sizes and in various layers that offer the actors something to hold on to to shape the actual story. The result is a kaleidoscopic set of ever-changing perspectives; small here and there, when a baby is born, or when a couple in love goes for a walk. Then big again, when a house is built, or when the village grows into a city. Add sounds and smells to this, and an experience is created in which the senses of the spectators are explicitly stimulated.

Progress

As long as the balance of power in the village of Primeval is clear, life continues. Genowefa and her Pawel have children. So does prostitute Aartje, but her life is less balanced. Landlord Popielski leads his comfortable life. Until the crisis breaks out, another brutal war ensues, and residents cross the village border and leave the marked paths. In the undercurrent, Oer and other times question whether ‘progress’ is so beneficial. Anyone who leaves the familiar community embarks on a questionable adventure. Without claiming that everything was better in the past, the run on everything that is bigger and more expensive does not necessarily make the residents of Primeval happier.

Handwriting

In everything in Primeval and Other Times we recognize the ‘handwriting’ of Guy Cassiers. Last season he directed the family epic Lehman Trilogy at ITA Ensemble, about the extremely wealthy American banking family that was at the origin of the banking crisis of 2008. However, not only the telling of family stories is a common thread in his work, but also the overwhelming use of video, cameras, projections. Cassiers, for example, already applied this method of storytelling in his legendary Proust four-part painting at – previously – the Ro Theater. Cassiers often brings his actors forward one by one to tell their story. With Chris Nietvelt, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Eelco Smits, Janni Goslinga, Daniël Kolf, Minne Koole, Ilke Paddenburg, Maarten Heijmans, ‘Ntianu Stuger and Frieda Pittoors, Cassiers has a very strong cast at his disposal. In the semi-darkness between the models to be filmed, Pauline Kalker, Arlène Hoornweg and Herman Helle of Hotel Modern can be recognized. Parallel It is a pity that Cassiers’ narrative form means that the life stories are often told in parallel, next to each other and therefore rarely ‘meet’ each other. In addition, the narration follows approximately the entirety of Tokarczuk’s book, making the performance last about two and a half hours, which is very long. On the other hand, the part before the break in particular really hits home, the spectators are more or less blown away by the story and images. You can therefore forgive Cassiers for the somewhat slower second half. This collaboration between ITA Ensemble and Hotel Modern delivers spectacular, eye-catching and unique theater.