Infamous Offspring

DIRECTION AND CHOREOGRAPHY Wim Vandekeybus  

CREATED WITH AND PERFORMED BY Iona Kewney, Maria Zhi Tortosa Soriano, Lotta Sandborgh, Cola Ho Lok Yee, Samuel Planas, Rakesh Sukesh, Paola Taddeo, Adrian Thömmes, Hakim Abdou Mlanao

TEXT Fiona Benson  

MUSIC Warren Ellis/Dirty Three, ILA

SOUND DESIGN FILM Arthur Brouns

ARTISTIC ASSISTANT AND DRAMATURGY Margherita Scalise  

MOVEMENT ASSISTANCE Maria Kolegova, Alexandros Anastasiadis

COSTUME DESIGN Isabelle Lhoas  

COSTUME ASSISTANCE Susanne Fischer

STAGE DESIGN Wim Vandekeybus

DECOR REALISATION AND CONSULTANCY Schröder, Pepijn Mesure, KVS

SOUND ENGINEER AND LIVE VIDEO OPERATOR Schröder  

LIGHT DESIGN Wim Vandekeybus, Benjamin Verbrugge  

LIGHT ON TOUR Benjamin Verbrugge  

SUPERTITLES Heleen Schepens

TRANSLATIONS Flavia Casini (Italian), Anne Vanderschueren (French), Alex Stockman & Kim Schepens (Dutch)

PRODUCTION Heleen Schepens  

TOUR MANAGERS Heleen Schepens, Kenneth Raemaekers

DISTRIBUTION Julia Bouhjar 

CONSULTANCY ON MYTHOLOGY Nadia Sels  

THANKS TO Jerry Killick, Matteo Principi, Louis Kubben

PICTURES Wim Vandekeybus, Danny Willems

PRODUCTION Ultima Vez  

CO-PRODUCTION Teatro Comunale Di Ferrara, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, KVS  

WITH THE SUPPORT OF  Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius. Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Community & the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region  


CREDITS FILM FRAGMENTS in the LIVE PERFORMANCE

DIRECTOR Wim Vandekeybus 

FILM SCRIPT Wim Vandekeybus, Fiona Benson 

FILM PRODUCED BY Ultima Vez & lesmecs  

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Jesse Vander Meersch 

FILM CAST Daniel Copeland, Lucy Black, Thi-Mai Nguyen, Cola Ho Lok Yee, Iona Kewney, Paola Taddeo 

WITH A SPECIAL APPEARANCE IN THE ROLE OF TIRESIAS Israel Galvàn

FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / VISUAL DIRECTOR Fernando Vandekeybus 

SECOND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Margherita Scalise  

DOP Dries Vanderaerden 

1st AC Ruby Vander Kooj 

STEADICAM Sander Blok 

ART DIRECTION Jara Vlaeminckx

SETDRESSER Brecht Vanthuyne, Aaron De Keyzer

ART DIRECTION BACKDROPS Naomi Zwaenepoel

GAFFER Pieter-Jan Donckels 

ELECTRO Willy Van Barel, Geert Drobé, Ellie Bryce, Thibaud Decoene, Steven Lorie, Justine Hautenauve 

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Pepijn Mesure, Schröder 

SET PHOTOGRAPHY Wim Vandekeybus 

SOUND Vincent Struelens

STYLING Isabelle Lhoas, Susanne Fischer

ASSISTANT STYLING Lieve Meeussen 

MAKE UP & HAIR Tine De Sauter

LOCATION KVS Brussels 

LOCATION MANAGERS Donald Berlanger, Robin Hectors 

PRODUCTION Lieselotte Belon, Sara El Allouch, Heleen Schepens, Monica De Bock  

POSTPRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Jasper Flikschuh

EDITOR Joost Prins

SOUND DESIGN Arthur Brouns

SOUND EDITING to be confirmed

GRADING to be confirmed

SPECIAL THANKS TO   Lucky Cameras, Cachet & Watts lightning

Infamous Offspring (c) film still by Wim Vandekeybus, Fernando Vandekeybus, Dries Vanderaerden

INFAMOUS OFFSPRING

Greek mythology re-mastered through the universe of Ultima Vez: this is Infamous Offspring. In Wim Vandekeybus' latest creation, a whole new cast of actors and dancers ventures into the labyrinth of ancient tales. On stage as on screen, dance merge with the words of poet Fiona Benson to create a unique new world.

All ancient stories revolve around gods, as projections of the extreme experiences of the human life. Zeus and Hera are the nucleus of the Greek pantheon, surrounded by a very lush offspring. How do these descendants relate to their parents and to each other? All together, they form a patchwork family, where all members have their own strengths, ambitions and flaws. Jealousy, adultery, greed and many other aspects that belong to the human experience were infused and amplified in these unreachable characters, so that we could mirror ourselves.

The Greek world of gods is never-ending: universal tales retold throughout history branch far away and are still hold true to our society today. Many variants of these stories keep being alive at the same time, which is the very core of the mythological narrative. As writer Roberto Calasso said, “everything that happens, happens this way, or that way, or this other way. If, out of some perversity of tradition, only one version of some mythical event has come down to us, it is like a body without a shadow, and we must do our best to trace out that invisible shadow in our minds." It is in this multifaceted context that the space for artistic imagination emerges and the world of Ultima Vez unfolds.

Daniel Copeland and Lucy Black play Zeus and Hera, who, appearing only on screen, remain distant, unreachable divine parents. At their side, the flamenco legend Israel Galván embodies Tiresias, the blind prophet who will communicate purely through rhythm and body language to the performers on stage.

Hephaestus is one of the main characters in Infamous Offspring, the god of fire and of forging, who as soon as he was born was already thrown from the Olympus and remained crippled. Due to his impairment, Hephaestus develops outstanding skills as the blacksmith of the gods. The rejected becomes then the skilled and the indispensable, the only worker.

In the show, Hephaestus is portrayed by Iona Kewney, a Scottish painter and contortionist, who transposes the key features of the crippled fire god into an imaginative language. All the divine siblings are performed on stage by young international dancers, opening the gaze on Greek mythology to a broader, contemporary and universal approach.

Fiona Benson, a poet whose dark imagination is solemnly infused with lyricism, reworked the mythology and imagined the text for the performance. Infamous Offspring is her theatre debut: poetry, like dance, is an abstract form of conveying something without literally pronouncing it.

Like in several of his previous pieces (like Blush, Puur, Traptown), Wim Vandekeybus develops the visual narration through several media: cinema coexists with stage performance, dance with spoken word. All these languages enhance and exalt each other for a unique and ever recognizable signature.

DIRECTION AND CHOREOGRAPHY Wim Vandekeybus  

CREATED WITH AND PERFORMED BY Iona Kewney, Maria Zhi Tortosa Soriano, Lotta Sandborgh, Cola Ho Lok Yee, Samuel Planas, Rakesh Sukesh, Paola Taddeo, Adrian Thömmes, Hakim Abdou Mlanao

TEXT Fiona Benson  

MUSIC Warren Ellis/Dirty Three, ILA

SOUND DESIGN FILM Arthur Brouns

ARTISTIC ASSISTANT AND DRAMATURGY Margherita Scalise  

MOVEMENT ASSISTANCE Maria Kolegova, Alexandros Anastasiadis

COSTUME DESIGN Isabelle Lhoas  

COSTUME ASSISTANCE Susanne Fischer

STAGE DESIGN Wim Vandekeybus

DECOR REALISATION AND CONSULTANCY Schröder, Pepijn Mesure, KVS

SOUND ENGINEER AND LIVE VIDEO OPERATOR Schröder  

LIGHT DESIGN Wim Vandekeybus, Benjamin Verbrugge  

LIGHT ON TOUR Benjamin Verbrugge  

SUPERTITLES Heleen Schepens

TRANSLATIONS Flavia Casini (Italian), Anne Vanderschueren (French), Alex Stockman & Kim Schepens (Dutch)

PRODUCTION Heleen Schepens  

TOUR MANAGERS Heleen Schepens, Kenneth Raemaekers

DISTRIBUTION Julia Bouhjar 

CONSULTANCY ON MYTHOLOGY Nadia Sels  

THANKS TO Jerry Killick, Matteo Principi, Louis Kubben

PICTURES Wim Vandekeybus, Danny Willems

PRODUCTION Ultima Vez  

CO-PRODUCTION Teatro Comunale Di Ferrara, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, KVS  

WITH THE SUPPORT OF  Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius. Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Community & the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region  


CREDITS FILM FRAGMENTS in the LIVE PERFORMANCE

DIRECTOR Wim Vandekeybus 

FILM SCRIPT Wim Vandekeybus, Fiona Benson 

FILM PRODUCED BY Ultima Vez & lesmecs  

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Jesse Vander Meersch 

FILM CAST Daniel Copeland, Lucy Black, Thi-Mai Nguyen, Cola Ho Lok Yee, Iona Kewney, Paola Taddeo 

WITH A SPECIAL APPEARANCE IN THE ROLE OF TIRESIAS Israel Galvàn

FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / VISUAL DIRECTOR Fernando Vandekeybus 

SECOND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Margherita Scalise  

DOP Dries Vanderaerden 

1st AC Ruby Vander Kooj 

STEADICAM Sander Blok 

ART DIRECTION Jara Vlaeminckx

SETDRESSER Brecht Vanthuyne, Aaron De Keyzer

ART DIRECTION BACKDROPS Naomi Zwaenepoel

GAFFER Pieter-Jan Donckels 

ELECTRO Willy Van Barel, Geert Drobé, Ellie Bryce, Thibaud Decoene, Steven Lorie, Justine Hautenauve 

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Pepijn Mesure, Schröder 

SET PHOTOGRAPHY Wim Vandekeybus 

SOUND Vincent Struelens

STYLING Isabelle Lhoas, Susanne Fischer

ASSISTANT STYLING Lieve Meeussen 

MAKE UP & HAIR Tine De Sauter

LOCATION KVS Brussels 

LOCATION MANAGERS Donald Berlanger, Robin Hectors 

PRODUCTION Lieselotte Belon, Sara El Allouch, Heleen Schepens, Monica De Bock  

POSTPRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Jasper Flikschuh

EDITOR Joost Prins

SOUND DESIGN Arthur Brouns

SOUND EDITING to be confirmed

GRADING to be confirmed

SPECIAL THANKS TO   Lucky Cameras, Cachet & Watts lightning

Agenda

21.10.23
Teatro Comunale di Ferrara
AVANT-PREMIERE Ferrara, Italy
07.11.23
Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
PREMIERE Luxemburg, Luxemburg
08.11.23
Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
PREMIERE Luxemburg, Luxemburg
22.11.23
ITA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
23.11.23
ITA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
29.11.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
30.11.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
01.12.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
02.12.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
06.12.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
07.12.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
08.12.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
09.12.23
KVS
Brussels, Belgium
15.12.23
Cultuurcentrum Hasselt
Hasselt, Belgium
16.01.24
STUK
Leuven, Belgium
17.01.24
STUK
Leuven, Belgium
08.02.24
Concertgebouw Brugge
Brugge, Belgium
10.02.24
De Spil
Roeselare, Belgium
22.02.24
Cultuurcentrum Zwaneberg
Heist-o/d-Berg, Belgium
09.03.24
Schauspiel Köln
Cologne, Germany
10.03.24
Schauspiel Köln
Cologne, Germany
19.04.24
De Factorij
Zaventem, Belgium
28.07.24
ImPuls Tanz
Vienna, Austria
29.07.24
ImPuls Tanz
Vienna, Austria
30.07.24
ImPuls Tanz
Vienna, Austria
20.11.24
Teatro Bellini
Naples, Italy
21.11.24
Teatro Bellini
Naples, Italy
22.11.24
Teatro Bellini
Naples, Italy
23.11.24
Teatro Bellini
Naples, Italy
24.11.24
Teatro Bellini
Naples, Italy
07.01.25
Toneelhuis
Antwerp, Belgium
08.01.25
Toneelhuis
Antwerp, Belgium
05.02.25
Points communs, Nouvelle scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise et du Val d'Oise
Paris, France
04.03.25
Théâtre des Salins, scène nationale de Martigues
Martigues, France
25.06.25
La Villette
Paris, France
26.06.25
La Villette
Paris, France
27.06.25
La Villette
Paris, France
28.06.25
La Villette
Paris, France