Antwerp-based the­atre-mak­er, actor and visu­al artist Thomas Verstraeten is part of the­atre col­lec­tive FC Bergman, but already cre­at­ed extra­or­di­nary hap­pen­ings in DE SINGEL with his solo work. After his much-dis­cussed Seefhoek Series, in which he blurred the bound­aries between the city and the the­atre, he is now cre­at­ing a new met­ro­pol­i­tan project with com­pos­er Heleen Van Haegenborgh. This time he does not focus on a sin­gle neigh­bour­hood, but on the entire city.

Symphony for one hun­dred cit­i­zens and a traf­fic light con­sists of a large-scale sym­pho­ny of every­day urban sounds and a video instal­la­tion. One hun­dred city dwellers from all cor­ners of Antwerp each play their own ​‘instru­ment’. No vio­lins, wood­winds and per­cus­sion on stage, but cars with a growl­ing engine, a sun­ny ter­race with clink­ing glass­es, bark­ing dogs, a wheeled suit­case glid­ing over the cob­ble­stones, a singing street gui­tarist, a road­work­er with a jack­ham­mer, a clock strik­ing 12 o’clock, whistling birds … All the instru­ments togeth­er on the stage of the Blue Hall form a sculp­tur­al col­lage of the city. 

Credits

• Concept and direction
  Thomas Verstraeten
• Composition
  Heleen Van Haegenborgh
• Performance
  habitants of the city of Antwerpstudents of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerpstudents of the Conservatoire of Ghentstudents of the Conservatoire of Brusselsmusical
• Conduction
  Tom De Cock
• Dramaturgy
  Katherina Lindeken, Seckou Ouologuem