http://www.detijd.be

Like other companies in the ‘Flemish Wave’, De Tijd emerged on the margins of the theatre scene in the eighties. In the mid-nineties it created a furore with its spoken theatre and found itself at the heart of events in the performing arts world. Against the background of the present wave of multidisciplinary and technological work, this medium-sized company consistently continues to work on developing a single-discipline language-based theatre. Its work is characterised by the combination of experimental textual dramaturgy and the almost old-fashioned craftsmanship and technique of its performers.

Unlike most spoken theatre, De Tijd does not understand a contemporary relationship with text to mean an updating of classical themes, but rather the shaping of language. It explores more than most other companies the new potential for the use of text in the theatre. To this end it applies artistic processes taken from the twentieth-century avant-garde, such as montage and multiple perspectives, to a repertoire that mainly comprises modern, Western, literary world heritage from a wide range of genres.

De Tijd reveals plays to be language constructions and expressions of world-views. An abundance of perspectives and voices, scraps that do no more than evoke a whole, identities that do not correspond to roles, emotions that turn out to be quotations, subtle shades rather than black and white images – we experience all this in reality, but still not enough in spoken theatre. Instead of simplifying the complexity of the contemporary world-view, De Tijd wants us to actually experience it. As far as this company is concerned, the experience of the performance can be just as complex as the experience of reality. Their productions do not feed us insights, but give us the opportunity to discover them together with the actors. This collective experience creates a ‘mental space’ where actors and audience are on an equal footing. De Tijd sees no obstacle, in the material space of the traditional theatre, to activating the imagination and creativity of the audience. Skilled actors use their dramatic and acting knowledge to ensure the audience has an intellectual and emotional experience of the performance.

De Tijd sees language as providing the building blocks not only for the logical construction of storylines, but also for aesthetic compositions. The company’s artistic leader, Lucas Vandervost would like to present language increasingly as an aesthetic object in the same way as abstract dance does with bodies. It is, among other things, from this ‘sensory’ approach to text that the company derives its name. By distancing itself from the classical plot and the passage of time it imposes, and by accentuating language as sound, rhythm and texture, time is brought to a standstill and made clearly perceptible. At the same time, the advance of time becomes almost palpable.

De Tijd hopes to be able to pass its expertise and craftsmanship on to the next generation. The commitment shown by Lucas Vandervost, Johan Van Assche and others as lecturers at the Antwerp Conservatory means young actors and theatre-makers are finding their way to De Tijd. This well-established company supports new collectives and individual actors, convinced that this will benefit them, the company and the sector as a whole. For example, in 2008, in addition to the programme for the season, it set up a ‘test programme’ that offers the opportunity to do small-scale productions in-house on the basis of a clearly-defined challenge: creating theatre on the proverbial ‘square metre’, meaning with limited resources.