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Bovary

Carme Portaceli & Michael De Cock / KVS
Tue 22.06.2021 - Sun 05.03.2023
22.06.2021
-
05.03.2023

Two years after their Mrs. Dalloway, Catalan director Carme Portaceli and KVS director Michael De Cock are taking on Madame Bovary. Maaike Neuville will don the tight wedding dress of Flaubert’s famed heroine. Carme Portaceli: “I knew immediately: this is our Madame Bovary.”

Emma Bovary marries her doctor, and with him her highest romantic expectations. But soon her boring everyday life starts to feel as oppressive as her corsets. She searches for more, for attention and for lovers, for new impulses to fill the crushing emptiness of her existence. 

Play the piano, be perfect, sois belle et tais-toi, be as society expects you to be, give your life but suppress any life you have left inside you. Emma suffers under the yoke of the outside world, but she keeps fighting for her ultimate desire … the desire to be whole. 

French author Gustave Flaubert threw a veritable bomb onto the world literature scene with his Madame Bovary. The story, of an adulterous doctor’s wife who takes her own life, was considered so shocking in 1856 that it was seen as an attack on French society and even led to a court case. Emma Bovary sent shock waves through France and the world. 

Flaubert’s book heralds the invention of the modern novel. He wanted to write a book about ‘nothing’ but it became a book about ‘everything’ – a book about the insatiable desire to be loved, about patriarchy, about (impossible) love, adultery, life and death.

It’s really masculinity that is due a re-think

Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary, his debut novel, in 1856. Almost immediately it stoked controversy for its depravity, but this haunting story about Emma Bovary, a strong, ambitious wife struggli…
Interview
"Regisseur Jaco Van Dormael herwerkte de theatervoorstelling tot een eigenzinnige televisiefilm maar de directheid van Neuvilles monologen en Portaceli's regie komt beter tot zijn recht voor een livepubliek."
De Morgen

Credits

Koen De Sutter

Maaike Neuville

Ana Naqe

actrice

© Danny Willems
© Danny Willems
© Danny Willems

Credits

REGIE / MISE EN SCÈNE / DIRECTION Carme Portaceli & Michael De Cock MET / AVEC / WITH Maaike Neuville, Koen De Sutter & Ana Naqe LICHTONTWERP / CONCEPTION LUMIÈRE / LIGHTING DESIGN Harry Cole SOUNDSCAPE / PAYSAGE SONORE / SOUNDSCAPE Charo Calvo CHOREOGRAFIE / CHORÉGRAPHIE / CHOREOGRAPHY Lisi Estaras DRAMATURGIE / DRAMATURGY Gerardo Salinas REGIE-ASSISTENT / ASSISTANT MISE EN SCÈNE / ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Inge Floré, Ricard Soler DECOR- & KOSTUUMONTWERP / CONCEPTION DE DÉCOR & COSTUMES / SET & COSTUME DESIGN Marie Szersnovicz PRODUCTIELEIDING / DIRECTEURS DE PRODUCTION / PRODUCTION DIRECTORS Catherine Vervaecke & Ella De Gregoriis TONEELMEESTER / REGIE DE PLATEAU / STAGE MANAGER Davy De Schepper TECHNIEK / TECHNIQUE Dimi Stuyven (licht/lumières/lighting), Bram Moriau (geluid/son/sound) MACHINERIE / MACHINERY Justine Hautenhauve, Willy Van Barel BOVENTITELING / SURTITRAGE / SURTITLING Inge Floré UITVOERING KOSTUUMS / CONFECTION COSTUMES / COSTUME EXECUTION Eugenie Poste & Heidi Ehrhart VERTALING / TRADUCTION / TRANSLATION Anne Vanderschueren, Trevor Perri SPREIDING & TOURMANAGEMENT / DISTRIBUTION & DIRECTRICE DE TOURNÉE / DISTRIBUTION & TOUR DIRECTION Saskia Liénard PRODUCTIE / PRODUCTION KVS COPRODUCTIE / COPRODUCTION Perpodium MET DE STEUN VAN / AVEC LE SOUTIEN DE / WITH THE SUPPORT OF Tax Shelter van de Belgische Federale Overheid via Cronos Invest