Forced Entertainment
The Notebook d’après Ágota Kristóf
© Hugo Glendinning ©
© Hugo Glendinning ©
Imagined and designed by Forced Entertainment
Based on Le Grand Cahier by Ágota Kristóf (published by Éditions du Seuil in France, 1986)
Translation, Alan Sheridan
Directed by Tim Etchells
With Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon
Set design, Richard Lowdon
Lighting, Jim Harrison
The Théâtre de la Bastille and the Festival d'Automne à Paris present this show in co-production.
Production Forced Entertainment
Coproduction PACT Zollverein (Essen); LIFT (London); 14-18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, with the support of the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England
Commissioned by House on Fire; HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin); Kaaitheater (Brussels); Teatro Maria Matos (Lisbon); LIFT and Malta Festival Poznan with support from the Culture Programme of the European Union
Co-production Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris); Festival d'Automne à Paris
With the support of Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts (LICA)
Adapted from Ágota Kristóf's famous novel, The Notebook unfolds its naïve and implacable logic, instilling its black humour within its historical framework. Forced Entertainment turns it into a narrative marathon for two performers trapped in the same voice, in a disturbing performance.
In The Notebook, the director Tim Etchells took his inspiration from the novel of the same name by the Hungarian authoress Ágota Kristóf, published in 1986. This work, which was adapted for the cinema in 2016 by the Hungarian film-maker János Szász, tells the story of a pair of twins who, during the Second World War take refuge in their grand-mother’s farm, deep in the countryside, in order to avoid having to go to the front-line, and be confronted with all the bloodshed of war. Living in extreme poverty, their view of the war is void of any sentimentality, unflinching. In their eyes, there can be no doubt that these confrontations are linked to the decline of Central Europe, and that of a society sliding down a slippery slope towards depravation, cruelty and opportunism. A society dominated by one-upmanship, and petty thirst for power. In this intimate, compelling text, dark humour is never far away. Onstage, the two actors Richard Lowdon and Robin Arthur, dressed identically, get under the skin of these conniving brothers as they tell, side by side, not just their own story but also that of a whole nation. A thought-provoking, disturbing narration in which we hear only one voice - and which is brimful of humanity.
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