Drie familietragedies

A trilogy by Oscar van Woensel.

It is the first time the theatre company will enact a piece written by one of its actors.

‘DRIE FAMILIETRAGEDIES’ is a morbid comedy of manners about swollen family ties, oppressive incestuous relations and the struggle between romantic desire and sense of reality. Alcohol and talk of the weather are recurring themes. The characters are participants in an absurd death dance in  which old feelings resurface and new conflicts are ignited.

As in a Greek tragedy, the characters are archetypes of their time. They represent the hollowness that serves as a mask to conceal the longing for hope, faith and love. The larger than life realism of the first two parts culminates in a monologue in which language and sound blend together in the third act.

In the midst of a overcrowded décor, the characters wage war using language as weapons. The texts are stories but their intonation also turns them into pieces of music. House and rap are new forms that originated through reducing live music into samples and a computer beat. This is similar to how language is used in this play. Tight rhythms, brief motifs and a recalcitrant, aggressive image.