WHITE BOX

The Belgian set designer and architect Sabine Theunissen has created some of the most original and bold stagings in the opera and theater world. Her longtime collaboration with William Kentridge as his primary designer has included everything from Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera in New York to his productions of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck to his large-scale work for non-traditional theater spaces The Head & the Load, which premiered at the Tate Modern in London.  

Now, in her first project as a director, she turns her eye to an epic adventure that, in her telling, becomes a metaphoric comedy about memory and destiny; legacy and hubris in the face of nature. Teaming up with one of South Africa’s most prolific and prominent choreographers Gregory Maqoma, WHITE BOX will sit at the intersection of performance, film and visual art; it will unfold like the landscape it depicts. The story--told through projection, dance, and music--hinges on a rediscovered camera and rolls of film that had been buried in the ice for 33 years, whose unearthing revealed the fate of the Polarex expedition.

WHITE BOX is a poetic and impressionistic distortion of the true story, unraveling the dramatic journey of the three scientists and blending it with a bizarre parallel tale of the life of the lost photographs since their emergence. It is also a loving tribute to photography and its capacity to reveal the power, beauty, and fragility of the environment. The resulting piece will illuminate, interrogate, and honor scientific exploration, one man’s quest for fame, and the perils of underestimating nature; the combination will add up to an inspiringly confounding evening of music, dance and film. In 2020 working with a remote team and filming performers in South Africa, Director Sabine Theunissen will create a 30-minute stop-motion animation on a scale model of the elaborate set that will be at once a compressed version of the story, a dynamic illustration of its novel design and staging, and an innovative short film worthy of presentation in its own right --a playful shadow of this theatrically immersive experience of beauty, hope, and infinity.

TEAM

CONCEPT | DIRECTION | SET DESIGN SABINE THEUNISSEN
CHOREOGRAPHY GREGORY MAQOMA
COMPOSER CATHERINE GRAINDORGE
CO-COMPOSER ANGELO MOUSTAPHA
LIGHTING DESIGN ELLEN RUGE
RESEARCH & HISTORICAL MATERIAL ADELAIDE DE CATERS
MECHANICAL PROP DESIGN JONAS LUNDQUIST
COSTUME DESIGN GRETA GOIRIS
SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANTS TYRONE MARTINSSON & LIZA MALONG
DANCER THULANI CHAUKE & FANA TSHABALALA
PERFORMER ANDREA FABI
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER THE OFFICE performing arts + film 
CO-PRODUCER ORIONTEATERN STOCKHOLM

TIME LINE

OCTOBER 2021 Creative workshop | Orionteatern, Stockholm
DECEMBER 2021 Video & Set development | Orionteatern, Stockholm
APRIL 2022 Full creative team workshop | location TBD
JUNE 2022 Stage rehearsals | Orionteatern, Stockholm
MAY 2023 Workshop | La Monnaie, Brussels
JUNE 2023 Technical workshop | Brown Arts Institute
FEBRUARY 2024 Final rehearsals & Premiere | Orionteatern, Stockholm

SABINE THEUNISSEN Director | Set Designer

Sabine Theunissen studied architecture in Brussels. After one year at the technical of ce of La Scala of Milan, she joined the Royal Theater of La Monnaie (Brussels) where she worked 17 years in the design studio.

In 2003, she met William Kentridge. Their collaboration began with Magic Flute (creation TRM 2005). Since then, she has designed sets for his opera productions, among which are The Nose (Met NYC 2010), Refuse the Hour (2012), The Refusal of Time (Documenta XIII -Kassel 2012), Winterreise (Vienna Festival, June 2014), Lulu (Met NYC, DNO, ENO 2015), Wozzeck (Salzburg Festival 2017, Met NYC, Sydney Opera). And also, for his art installations and exhibitions including Notes Towards a Model Opera (exhibition, Beijing, Seoul, 2015), No It Is (exhibition Gropius Bau, Berlin 2015), Thick Times (exhibition White Chapel-Louisiana-Salzburg-Manchester 2016), Smoke, Ashes, Fable (exhibition in Bruges 2017), O Sentimental Machine (exhibition in Frankfurt, Liebig Haus in 2018), Quelle che non ricordo (exhibition in Sydney 2018).

Based in Brussels, she is simultaneously working with other directors and choreographers, including her sister Hélène Theunissen, for whom she designed sets for La Dispute, Marrakech (Brussels 2012) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Brussels 2017). She recently de- signed sets for Bug and Othello staged by Aurore Fattier. She also collaborated with the choreographer Michèle Noiret for Hors-champ (2015) and Radioscopie (2016), and with the director Lilo Baur for Ariane and Barbe-Bleue (Opera de Dijon 2012). She designed other exhibitions The Body in Indian Art (Europalia Festival, Brussels, October 2013) and 1,000m2 of desire (CCCB, Barcelona, September 2016).

She is frequently invited for lecturing in art and architecture schools, like Stockholm University, Pavillon Bosio (Monaco), La Cambre (Brussels), The Fine Art School (Tournai), and EYE Filmmmuseum (Amsterdam).

https://sabinetheunissen.weebly.com/scene.html

GREGORY MAQOMA Choreographer

Soweto-born Gregory Vuyani Maqoma took up dance in the late 1980s as a refuge from the political tensions in the township, and quickly be- gan excelling. He embarked on his formal dance training at Moving Into Dance Mophatong in 1990 where, in 2002, he would return to serve a five-year stint as associate artistic director.

Today, Maqoma is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and scriptwriter. He has also distinguished himself for his artistic collaborations, including working with British-based choreographer Akram Khan and the London Sinfonietta, as well as South African fashion designer David Tlale, singer-songwriter Simphiwe Dana and theatre maker Brett Bailey. He counts director James Ngcobo among his frequent collaborators, creating the choreography for award-winning theatre productions such as The Lion and the Jewel, The Hill, Crazy for Jazz, Thirst, Master Harold and the Boys, Sunjata and Songs of Migration with Hugh Masekela. Maqoma also worked with Ngcobo on the ANC centenary celebration musical Tshihumbudzo in Bloemfontein.

He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre with several works in the company repertoire earning accolades and international acclaim. This includes FNB Vita Choreographer of the Year in 1999, 2001 and 2002 for Rhythm 1.2.3, Rhythm Blues and Southern Comfort respectively. Maqoma is well known for his dance trilogies, including the Beautiful trilogy (Gauteng MEC Award 2006 and 2007). Maqoma received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance (2002). He was a nalist in the Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award (2002) and in the Rolex Mentorship Programme in 2003. In 2011 he won the Dance Manyano Choreographer of the Decade Dance Award, and received the 2012 Tunkie Award for elevating the standard and visibility of dance in South Africa. In 2017 Maqoma was honoured by the French Government with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Arts & Literature) Award. Recently Maqoma was awarded with the Inaugural Usiba Awards by the South African Department of Arts & Culture for his dedication to dance teaching and development.

CATHERINE GRAINDORGE | Composer

Catherine Graindorge is a violinist, violist, composer and actress based in Brussels. Over the years, she has built her craft by mixing disciplines, creating theatre shows as a writer and actor, composing music for her own and others’ shows and playing in various musical formations. Since 2012 and the release of The Secret of us all, her first solo album, she has multiplied collaborations with artists such as John Parish (PJ Harvey), Hugo Race (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Pascal Humbert and Bertrand Cantat (Detroit), Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Mark Lanegan (Jeffrey Lee Pierce Project) but also composed for dance, theatre and cinema (with a Magritte nomination for her soundtrack of Le Chant des Hommes).

In October 2021 is launched her second solo album Eldorado on Glitterbeat Records (Tak: Till), recorded in Bristol with the legendary John Parish, here producer but also musician. In a distant echo of Max Richter’s cinematic flights of fancy or Warren Ellis’ flayed harmonies, she continues her unique journey out of time.

In September 2022, she released The Dictator, a 4-track EP with Iggy Pop as a guest, on Glitterbeat Records.

She is currently working on a new musical project with Simon Jones (And also The Trees) and Pascal Humbert (16 Horsepower) among others.

In May 2023, the 4th album of her trio Nile On waX will be released on Tonzonen records.

catherinegraindorge.com
catherinegraindorge.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/CatherineGraindorgeMusicienne/