ONE SONG

What is your history as a theatre maker? At the invitation of NTGent, Miet Warlop formulates an answer as only she can. Twelve performers enter the arena for a mesmerizing ritual about farewell, life and death, hope and resurrection.

Through the metaphor of a live competition/concert, including a commentator and a cheerleader, Miet Warlop invites us to form a community and lift each other up, as in a celebration. The temporary thus becomes the universal, and the personal becomes something of the collective. That is the subtext of ONE SONG: how one song can give meaning to a whole society. Unity in diversity.

The past is the present is the future. And as human beings, we are, willingly and unwillingly, a gladiator, in conflict with time. Beauty and comfort cannot be grasped but happen to us. The need to connect makes us both vulnerable and tragic. Vulnerable in our physical limitations, despite the efforts we make to strengthen our bodies. And tragic in our existential loneliness, the result of an awareness that is peculiar to mankind.

The twelve performers go to extremes together: through song text, images and objects, oxygen and sweat, they evoke our condition humaine. Again and again, someone stands up to push his or her boundaries. They defy time and give expression to a deep human need: the moment in which we can transcend our thinking body.

PRESS

The performance ‘ONE SONG’ by Miet Warlop and NTGent has been chosen by the New York Times as one of the best performances of 2022! “Incredible virtuosity,” writes the newspaper. “A wild, exhilarating study of the absurd.”
The New York Times – 15th of December 2022

“The most exalted show of the opening days (…) eliciting a massive ovation.”
The Guardian **** – 12th of July 2022

“ONE SONG is loud, preposterous and extremely entertaining.”
The New York Times – 14th of July 2022

“Warlop is a fascinating artist who is finally getting more recognition.”
Le Monde – 12th of July 2022

“A rocking primal scream that bursts with zest for life, energy and humour.”
De Standaard **** – 11th of July 2022

“A powerful but salutary knockout. Seventeen years after the performance Sportband, Warlop’s requiem for her brother Jasper, ONE SONG tells us that grief always stays with us, but also that grief – by carrying it together – is transformed, from the intimate to the universal, and allows us to go to the limits of what seems humanly possible.”
Le Soir – 12th of July 2022

“A primal cry of loss. A vital, musical explosion.”
De Morgen – 8th of July 2022

15 Dec 2022 – The New York Times
14 Jul 2022 – The New York Times
12 Jul 2022 – The Guardian
12 Jul 2022 – Le Monde
12 Jul 2022 – Le Soir
12 Jul 2022 – Scèneweb
11 Jul 2022 – De Standaard
11 Jul 2022 – Libération
9 Jul 2022 – La Libre Belgique
8 Jul 2022 – De Morgen