Arts Flanders

“She dusts everything off, gives the curtains another shake, beats the carpets and polishes the floor but doesn’t put the dustbags out yet because it’s Wednesday and people might start wondering. She takes another look at the 76 notches she has made in the doorframe with a kitchen knife. They are all exactly the same length. The space between each successive notch is exactly the same too. She has always been very neat and precise. She touches them with her fingertips. The small differences in relief give her a cold shiver. For 76 days she has waited, searched. She has been both laughed at and listened to with understanding. Her decision is final. 76 notches. Neat and tidy. The way she has lived. Now she’s going to make a rotten mess of it.”

Marketplace 76 is the story of villagers startled by an explosion in which 24 people lose their lives, including 7 children. The tragedy of the dead children weighs heavily on the surviving villagers. Too much grief dominates their lives. Until one day a boat falls from the sky: ‘A lifeboat fallen from the sky’.

Jan Lauwers has written Marketplace 76, a new, kaleidoscopic epic story composed of four seasons. It is a meticulous report on villagers who have been overtaken and driven forward by time, and in spite of everything are able to survive heroically. Marketplace 76 reconciles such dark themes as mourning and sorrow, incest and abduction, paedophilia and suicide with excessive love, friendship, happiness and survival.

More info
Needcompany - Marketplace 76
7/9/2012 – Ruhrtriënnale, Bochum (Germany)
www.needcompany.org
www.ruhrtriennale.de