David Van Reybrouck, Raven Ruëll & Bruno Vanden Broecke / KVS MISSIE MISSION. A superb text an exceptional interpretation.

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1 David Van Reybrouck, Raven Ruëll & Bruno Vanden Broecke / KVS MISSIE MISSION A staggering, hard but moving performance - De Morgen - A superb text an exceptional interpretation - Le Soir - Play of the year - Klara - Bruno Vanden Broecke performs what is probably his most surprising interpretation ever. Applause. - De Standaard - KOEN BROOS

2 MISSION the confronting life story of a missionary in Congo In Missie, Bruno Vanden Broecke steps into the shoes of the philanthropic friar and missionary André Vervecken. He talks about his experiences in Congo, from banal anecdotes to grievous occurrences that make even a deeply faithful person doubt God s existence. Missie, played by the mighty Bruno Vanden Broecke and directed by Raven Ruëll, is a play that sticks with you. Author David Van Reybrouck penned the story. Missie is a moving two-hour-long monologue, written by bestselling Flemish author David Van Reybrouck. It was first performed in Bruno Vanden Broecke takes on the role of the 80-year-old white friar André Vervecken. He sets out his life story and his experiences as a missionary in Congo. Thanks to Vanden Broecke s potent and nuanced interpretation, the audience is both entertained and confronted, and gradually made to drop their preconceptions about missionaries. This friar is not the archaic stereotype we had in mind. He s a human of flesh and blood, full of emotions and doubts. Missie is a true plea for the monologue in large theatres. Unmissable, as a story and as an acting feat. Dagblad van het Noorden Winning over souls and educating peoples is not André Vervecken s main goal. He chiefly wants to limit grief to a minimum and make the world a better place. The missionary talks of God and Christian values, of how people annihilate each other in war and battle, which makes even the most godly man occasionally doubt his faith. He recounts the critical situations he s seen, but also the beautiful experiences. Diverting anecdotes are interlaced with at times shocking stories. As the performance proceeds, the discomfort increases and the tone darkens, leading to a dramatic ending. Congo is a country ravaged by war and colonisation. Before writing this monologue David Van Reybrouck travelled to Congo to interview 15 real missionaries. He documented their stories and experiences and published the successful book Congo, a history in 2010, which led to this play. Author Van Reybrouck digs deeper than ever into the soul of the westerner in Africa - De Morgen The book won several literary prizes, amongst others the AKO Literature Prize and the Libris History Prize. The bestseller was translated into a whopping 13 languages. MORE INFO: TRAILER PHOTOS CREDITS BIO PRESS CAPTATION LOGIN: PRESS

3 Quotes from Mission They still use dowries there. But a dowry, that reduces a women to a simple object, she loses all her dignity, what are we even doing! Africa will be Christianised by the Africans. A human life doesn t have chapters. It just runs on from beginning to end, it s a breath of air that doesn t even last very long. Africa will be Christianised by the Africans. The church is a people in transit To live more fully you need to die a little because of something else A choice is an echo that grows louder. You don t choose once, you choose many times over, and in the end they call it a life. You can only enjoy living if you don t mind dying. You can only enjoy giving if you have nothing to lose. Otherwise you become a spasm, a barnacle attaching itself to a boat that will sail off either way. God doesn t cry you know, I ve never heard it. I d like it if he did though. Why don t you cry along!

4 Bruno Vanden Broecke s stage legs (2017 INTERVIEW BY KVS) Missie and Para: two monologues written by David Van Reybrouck. Both performed by Bruno Vanden Broecke. Both, in their own ways, classics. Missie was created in 2007, and you re still playing it. You have said before that you want to keep performing it until you retire. Why? That s mostly down to the text. Missie is such a universal text, about commitment and making choices. Many people recognise themselves in it myself included. Why did I make this or that choice? And was I right? That s the question Missie asks. It s a question everyone recognises, and exactly therein lies the beauty of the text. It s an enrichment for me to be able to tell this story over and over, and to measure it up to my own life while playing. So much has happened in my life in all that time. Many sentences sound different now compared to years ago, simply because my life has changed. It s like red wine that ripens with time. I d love to grow old with this text. Do you remember how this creation was conceived? Was there magic in the air from the beginning? At the creation you never know where something is headed. But I do remember that there was a silence after the first reading. Director Raven Ruëll was at the table, designer Leo De Nys, of course David Van Reybrouck, and dramaturge Ivo Kuyl. I said to David that afternoon: In two weeks I ll know that text by heart. He had to laugh, but two weeks later I did indeed perform the text for David and Raven for the first time. It was different to anything I d done before. It s theatre, so it s fiction, but you are still recounting a life. That s something pretty special. We could feel we had something powerful in hand. Has the performance changed a lot? It does move, yes. Like any performance. After a few years it had become about twenty minutes longer. Sometimes the friar becomes a little too talkative (laughs). And of course things arise you know which baits to throw out, and how to reel them in at the end. And every language is very different. In German it s a very different feeling, because you need more words than for example in French. That shifts the story arc. Every performance has a little dip in concentration, a drop, as we call it. The audience can t be at the edge of their seats the whole time. You have to know where the drop is, and the art of the matter is to guide yourself and the audience through it without them noticing. Same tailor, same fabric, different trousers. Khaki trousers. How much pressure was there while creating Para in 2016? Same tailor, same fabric, different trousers. Khaki trousers, instead of a habit. But it felt like coming home. So nice. The expectations were high, but it s so nice to be part of that same team again. It s not a play without obligations. You know that you are giving part of the population a voice. That s what s so great about David s work: to dive into the folds

5 of history, and then, out of a humanitarian and historical concern, to create some sort of rehabilitation It s a very contemporary thing to be unambiguous, but it s much too easy. Theatre can create both depth and emotion. What was it like to play in front of a group of paratroopers? I had tears in my eyes when Aziz was in the audience, because he s been through so much. After the performance he approached me and gave me his wings. You deserve these, he said. Really intense to see that entire regiment together. You can feel that those men have been through a lot. There s something rectilinear about them. That s something that is far removed from me. I m a lyrical person. Neither me nor Raven have even been in the army. But the scepticism they felt initially transformed into gratitude. I could feel so much gratitude because we didn t choose the easy road, didn t make it a tearjerker. Which is entirely David s merit. In 2019 you ll have been on stage for 20 years. You are one of Flanders biggest talents. Congratulations on your amazing career so far. Ah, career What is that even in this job? I always have to laugh at that word. A career, that s nothing. Nothing more than a sum of years. Career? It s always starting from rock bottom. The only gains you make are all those years on stage. It gives you stronger stage legs. But the web of a performance has to be weaved over every time. It s so fragile, difficult, powerful and beautiful all at the same time. What a job it is. I feel blessed. (INTERVIEW CAN BE USED FREE OF COPYRIGHT)