Maggot Brain II: A Soliloquy of Ghosts
Over Mathieu Charles
Mathieu Charles is a performer who incorporates different styles of text and performance within his art. Though his slam poetry and spoken word stem from a background in hip-hop and rap, theater has always been the common thread that meandered...
In Maggot Brain II, Mathieu Charles and ARAKAZA (dj/sound producer) walk round and round and round the audience—but they don’t exactly circle around the essence. In text and techno, they sketch an African diaspora and an endless loop of past, present, and future. Circle after circle, they raise the tension and confront the audience with a horrific history that repeats itself relentlessly.
The spirits from the title of the performance become almost tangible in the lighting, the hypnotic soundtrack, and even scents that follow you. Charles, together with ARAKAZA, builds a multilayered universe, also thematically: cosmology and mythologies intertwine, just like fantasy and reality, the dead and the living.
This is the final part of a trilogy that began with Fanon Mixtape and AKOMFRAHDIO. Sensitive spirits: abstaining.
CONCEPT & DIRECTION: MATHIEU CHARLES // PERFORMER: MATHIEU CHARLES & ARNOLD ARAKAZA// DJ & SOUNDPRODUCER: ARNOLD ARAKAZA // SCENOGRAPHY: ŠPELA TUŠAR// SCENTS: ROSE-MYRTHA VERCAMMEN// COSTUME: SERAPHINE BOYELEBA BALEHEN // VIDEOPROJECTIONS: OSCAR CASSAMAJOR// ARTISTIC ADVICE: NICOLE GEERTRUIDA, MOYA MICHAEL, MELIH GENCBOYACI, MAARTEN VAN HINTE// VIDEO & PHOTO: MALKIA MUTIRI // LIGHT PLAN & TECHNIQUE: GERRIT DE BREMME// EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION: ANAKU IN COLLABORATION WITH MATHIEU CHARLES// COPRODUCERS: PRODUCTIEHUIS THEATER ROTTERDAM, VLAAMS CULTUURHUIS DE BRAKKE GROND, VIERNULVIER // WITH THE SUPPORT OF FONDS PODIUMKUNSTEN// WITH THANKS TO EMMA-LEE AMPONSAH, RACHAEL MOORE, SHARI AKU LEGBEDJE, ANASTASIA TCHERNOKONDRATENKO, AUDREY IKIREZI, SEFORA SAM, LISA WIEGEL, NADIA BENABDESSAMAD, KHADIJA EL KHARRAZ ALAMI, KOPANO MAROGA, PELUMI ADEJUMO, HASAN GÖK, MARJORIE BOSTON, MAARTEN VAN HINTE, JOËLLE RAUS PRUDENCE, ALIDA DORS, NYNKE JOUSTRA, SIMON(E) VAN SAARLOOS
© Salih Kilic
About specifications Mathieu Charles
Mathieu Charles is a performer who incorporates different styles of text and performance within his art. Though his slam poetry and spoken word stem from a background in hip-hop and rap, theater has always been the common thread that meandered...
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