THEATRE/NYC
"Isabella’s Room"
Dec. 14, 16-18, 7:30pm

At the venerable age of 94, Isabella is certainly entitled to her memories and the stories they evoke. Yet unlike those of her peers, Isabella’s recollections surface not from her past, but from a camera projecting images directly into her brain, the product of experiments conducted by an adjacent research hospital.

Isabella is blind, and her memories, imposed rather than earned, are entirely synthetic.

Or are they?

As conceived by Needcompany’s Jan Lauwers, "Isabella’s Room" is a balance of text, music, and dance conjuring up a world of alternate and actual realities, purely theatrical and visually captivating.

As portrayed by Viviane De Muynck, Isabella radiates boldness and curiosity, characteristics that serve her well as she calmly surveys her visions.

Eight other performers animate a random barrage of impressions and images; we see what Isabella "sees," a place where past and present merge and reality is just a distant memory.

Lauwers comments on his work in "BAMezine":

"The set is, in fact, the objects. I just put them on tables to expose them. As I mentioned before: art is energy. The energy of each object is very present, [no matter] how small they sometimes are.

"Every object is a story, every manipulation of an object is a dance. The objects also redefine realism or mimesis on stage, since they are not copies or props.

"They destroy an illusion to create a new one...Viviane is like a ‘muse’ for me. When I develop a story and the characters I need to know who will play the part... Isabella Morandi performed by Viviane De Muynck is dynamite: a female Zorba the Greek without a boss."

Shown/header image: Viviane De Muynck, in a scene from "Isabella's Room"

Find it: BAM - Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Get info: (718) 636-4100

Find dance/theatre events in other cities, in the DEC/JAN issue of "Arte Six."