Grandpa Puss; or how God disappeared

She searches for the ways in which the great and the small, the intimate and the political, the past and the present are interconnected. The central figure is a twelve-year-old girl who stands at the end of a long streak of history and who delves into the hidden traumas of the past. Houbrechts turns the story into a trilogy of visual, lyrical and musical splendour.

The twelve-year-old Granddaughter of All Granddaughters looks back into her grandfather's past. His childhood, the war, sexual abuse in the fraternity school and the cruel marriage with Grandma Puss. Historical traumas mingle with current events. The Granddaughter of All Granddaughters is magical. She struggles through the pool of memories to visit the children of the past. The violence done to children determines the violence of tomorrow. 

Grandpa Puss; or how God disappeared tells the story of a family breakdown in which Grandpa Puss and his son sacrifice their faith and nail Jesus to the Cross. This to the despair of Grandma Puss who wants to keep her family pious and pure in a world that is becoming more and more secular in the 1970s. 

In a profound collage of intense images, texts and music, Lisaboa Houbrechts interweaves fragments of Bach's St John Passion with her own texts. Hhe connects Bach with contemporary electronic music and all the sound possibilities of an accordion. She gives a voice and a body to the disappearing Jesus and goes in search of a different form of faith. 

For this grand narrative, Lisaboa Houbrechts works with players, singers and musicians of all ages. From children to young adult performers to some established theatre monuments. She builds a house of magic and poetry in which the children of today play with the young versions of their parents and grandparents.