"I don’t compromise. If you do that, you disavow yourself."
"I don’t compromise. If you do that, you disavow yourself."
Excerpts of an interview with Abke Haring
by Els Van Steenberghe
in Knack, November 18th, 2015
by Els Van Steenberghe
in Knack, November 18th, 2015
Next week will see the première of Abke Haring’s UNISONO at Toneelhuis. At a turning
point in her life she goes back to square one, creating a play on her own. It
will be minimal theatre after life has taken her completely by surprise, as an
actress and as a woman.
“That way I have him with me and yet you wouldn’t know.” One beautiful Sunday afternoon in August Abke Haring sits behind her writing table beaming. She studies her black T-shirt sullied that morning by her baby’s reflux. We are sitting in the narrow study in a former ballet school near the Bourla theatre which Toneelhuis has put at Haring’s disposal. The walls are pale green, the ceiling yellow and the large window overlooks the lush walled garden.
Haring’s desk – a simple, rectangular table – just
fits into the space. On the table top are a glass of coffee and several plastic
bags full of carefully filled brown sandwiches. There are also two books (Dash
Snow’s I Love You, Stupid! and
Marshall Vian Summers’ Steps to Knowledge)
along with Haring’s mobile phone. “I normally switch the phone off.” But at the
moment life is anything but normal. In the spring Haring gave birth to a
splendid son who looks at her from the screen of the mobile phone. The boy has inherited
his mother’s large, astonished-looking eyes and the tanned skin of his father
who hails from New York.
“His
grandmother was over from Philadelphia recently and we were talking about the worsening
racial hatred in America. Since Obama has been president, the hatred has increased
because the blacks now seem to have the final say in everything. The racists
don’t like that at all. That sort of thing scares me. Surely it can’t be normal
that looking at my son makes me sad?” But he is not the only thing that has
turned Haring’s life upside down.
When the young woman from Utrecht graduated from
the Studio Herman Teirlinck in 2002, she almost immediately attracted the
attention of director Luk Perceval, which is how she came to be at Toneelhuis. Last
year she even won the prestigious Theo d’Or for her impressive rendition of
Hamlet in Hamlet vs Hamlet (written
by Tom Lanoye and directed by Guy Cassiers, artistic director of Toneelhuis).
This spring Toneelhuis announced that her existing
contract would not be extended. From 2017 Haring will only be attached to the
theatre company as an actress. As a theatre-maker she’ll be able to spread her
wings. “As an actress I attract full houses, as a theatre-maker I haven’t
managed to do that here yet.” The news is bittersweet. “After UNISONO I’m going to make a production
with Guy and after that I’m acting in a Toneelhuis and Toneelgroep Amsterdam coproduction
directed by Ivo van Hove and then I’m going to make another creation of my own.
That’s something I really want to do.
And they’re going to be some plays, let me tell you!”
When
Haring’s feathers are ruffled, she slips into broad Flemish. But the fiery words
are barely out of her mouth before she dives under the table and slaps the flat
of her hand on the parquet floor. “Touch wood! You never know”, she laughs apologetically.
“The news hit me hard but now I see it as a fantastic challenge. I’m looking
forward to making shows in other places. In future I also want to do more with
movement – dance at last! – and work more with photographs and objects. But
above all I have to put bread on the table and I want to be a good mother.”
Mother
Like all mothers
ABKE HARING: Not every mother manages to do that. My mother found it difficult when I was growing up. That was a grim time. I left my mother and went and lived with my father for a while and moved into a students’ hostel before I was eighteen. And I ran away from school… I have two brothers [including Bas Haring, the philosopher and author of the award-winning Kaas en de evolutietheorie, editor’s note] and two sisters, but we didn’t help each other. Only now, now we are older and parents ourselves have we grown closer. My youth was a dark and lonely period, but I have emerged as a positive human being.
ABKE HARING: Not every mother manages to do that. My mother found it difficult when I was growing up. That was a grim time. I left my mother and went and lived with my father for a while and moved into a students’ hostel before I was eighteen. And I ran away from school… I have two brothers [including Bas Haring, the philosopher and author of the award-winning Kaas en de evolutietheorie, editor’s note] and two sisters, but we didn’t help each other. Only now, now we are older and parents ourselves have we grown closer. My youth was a dark and lonely period, but I have emerged as a positive human being.
Who or what helped you do that?
HARING: Survival instinct. And hope. In the midst of all that darkness I was constantly looking for hope. I found it partly in writing and in the beauty of small things. Is that being strong? I don’t know if I’m strong. Perhaps it’s the other way round? Something in me is weak enough to succumb to believing in hope and in the pleasure of writing. Or does that sound crazy?
HARING: Survival instinct. And hope. In the midst of all that darkness I was constantly looking for hope. I found it partly in writing and in the beauty of small things. Is that being strong? I don’t know if I’m strong. Perhaps it’s the other way round? Something in me is weak enough to succumb to believing in hope and in the pleasure of writing. Or does that sound crazy?
Writing
is a true friend. Since puberty I have always carried a little book with me. It’s
safer and kinder than people. I’m a loner. As a teenager I didn’t belong anywhere.
I never drank or smoked anything. I didn’t say much and I wrote a lot. I wrote
poems. But I didn’t know they were poems. I just wrote things down. Until my Dutch
teacher asked me to read out one of those ‘poems’ in class. His lessons were my
holdfast. Those and my drama lessons were the only times I felt safe.
UNISONO
As a result of your first play, Nageslachtsfarce/genocide (2002), your work was labelled ‘theatre
of solitude’. Was that an appropriate label?
HARING: My theatre isn’t just a way of talking about ‘solitude’. After my graduation monologue, I wrote the solos Hoop (Hope, 2006) and Linoleum/Speed (2009) about the mother/child relationship. After HOUT (Wood, 2010) I tackled other themes and forms.
HARING: My theatre isn’t just a way of talking about ‘solitude’. After my graduation monologue, I wrote the solos Hoop (Hope, 2006) and Linoleum/Speed (2009) about the mother/child relationship. After HOUT (Wood, 2010) I tackled other themes and forms.
UNISONO is another solo and
you might describe it as a play about solitude. But it is about more. I want to
focus on the patterns in our life. Everyone follows the same patterns.
Literally and figuratively. Everyone is born, gets older and dies. During my
pregnancy I was very aware of patterns. With my hormones all over the place, I
also suffered from obsessive-compulsive neurosis. I saw every door that was
left ajar, counted stickers, was irritated by the rubbish at the entrance to
Albert Heijn. Details drove me over the edge. While I was pregnant, I
established all sorts of patterns and performed little rituals.
I
want to make an intimate play. Ideally I’d like to open the door for the
audience myself. And the set will be as minimal as possible. That way I’ll be
able to go on tour in Flanders and the Netherlands with little more than a
rucksack. Or maybe I’ll perform it in a converted garage somewhere off-off-Broadway!
UNISONO is a little ritual, a prayer almost. It’s a choreography of thoughts and ideas in an intimate, silent space. You see and hear the thoughts of someone who is unsure how to deal with life. In this society there is very little time for silence, uncertainty and searching. Yet all around me I see people looking for an answer as to why things are as they are. This play is about that search for a holdfast. We all want to arrive in a place where we find space, repose and peace.
UNISONO is a little ritual, a prayer almost. It’s a choreography of thoughts and ideas in an intimate, silent space. You see and hear the thoughts of someone who is unsure how to deal with life. In this society there is very little time for silence, uncertainty and searching. Yet all around me I see people looking for an answer as to why things are as they are. This play is about that search for a holdfast. We all want to arrive in a place where we find space, repose and peace.
Is writing arriving in that place?
HARING: After that hectic period in which I played Hamlet and had a child it is wonderful to have the chance to be alone for a few hours each day. It’s one extreme to another. Even when I’m writing I collect in a voice all the voices in my head. I want people to hear all those tens of thousands of conversations you have with yourself while you are also speaking to someone else and to calm them.
HARING: After that hectic period in which I played Hamlet and had a child it is wonderful to have the chance to be alone for a few hours each day. It’s one extreme to another. Even when I’m writing I collect in a voice all the voices in my head. I want people to hear all those tens of thousands of conversations you have with yourself while you are also speaking to someone else and to calm them.
UNISONO is an invitation to try. We are allowed to try. We
so often forget that today. I rarely check Facebook. When I do, it makes me
sad. All those people living seemingly perfect, successful lives. It’s as if today
you’re not allowed not to know how to go on.
That’s what started me writing. Now that my son goes to the crèche, I have a precise number of hours every day to do the household tasks and my work. There’s no time to look back and reflect. Work, work, work! So I have spent the last few weeks writing intensively with minimal techno in the headphones.
That’s what started me writing. Now that my son goes to the crèche, I have a precise number of hours every day to do the household tasks and my work. There’s no time to look back and reflect. Work, work, work! So I have spent the last few weeks writing intensively with minimal techno in the headphones.
What did you write?
HARING: (She thinks for a long time, hesitates and then that typical, quiet focussed look appears in her eyes. Almost whispering she recites a snippet of script) ‘Movement is painful / and it only touches the apparatus that tunes the strings / the instrument itself has gone quietly into standby mode.’ (Silence) That goes to the heart of UNISONO.
HARING: (She thinks for a long time, hesitates and then that typical, quiet focussed look appears in her eyes. Almost whispering she recites a snippet of script) ‘Movement is painful / and it only touches the apparatus that tunes the strings / the instrument itself has gone quietly into standby mode.’ (Silence) That goes to the heart of UNISONO.
TRAINER | FLOU
One of the books on your desk this summer is Marshall
Vian Summers’ Steps to Knowledge:
Spiritual Preparation for Humanity's Emergence into the Greater Community. Would
you like to share your vision not only as a mother but also as an artist?
HARING: Sometimes I shout: ‘We must educate the public!’ TRAINER (2013) was set in a factory where people had to work mechanically almost like machines. But more important to me than making a purely social statement is that every scene, every word and every movement is right. I prefer to focus on the family than on society.
HARING: Sometimes I shout: ‘We must educate the public!’ TRAINER (2013) was set in a factory where people had to work mechanically almost like machines. But more important to me than making a purely social statement is that every scene, every word and every movement is right. I prefer to focus on the family than on society.
The lengths I go to to portray stage images and
the postures of my actors verge on the irritating. And I would like to be even
more irritating! (Grins) Details are
my great love. The beauty and the added value of things lie in the details. The
beauty of nature affects me deeply too. The veins of a leaf, a drop of water.
In FLOU [a
play made in 2011 about the ebbing love between a man and a woman, performed by
Haring and Han Kerckhoffs, editor’s note] water dripped onto the stage drop
by drop. That sound was amplified so you could clearly hear the ‘drip’. I want
to stage those details as precisely as possible. And I don’t compromise. If you
do that, you disavow yourself. It’s your job as an artist not to disavow
yourself. I don’t make theatre to please people.
Loner
So why do you make theatre?
HARING: So as to stop and reflect in this hectic world, as in UNISONO. Making theatre is damned difficult. What people really want is a relaxing evening. But as a theatre-maker you want to say and show confrontational things. When I was pregnant I, too, wanted to go to the theatre alone and to chill out. But why do you make art or theatre? Because you want to make a statement. I don’t so much make plays for the public as with the public. Together you focus on a feeling, on pain, you get through it and then experience the hope together. Together! Without your having to participate actively or anything like that. The theatre is the best place for loners to be together and feel they have a bond without actually having to bond with anyone.
HARING: So as to stop and reflect in this hectic world, as in UNISONO. Making theatre is damned difficult. What people really want is a relaxing evening. But as a theatre-maker you want to say and show confrontational things. When I was pregnant I, too, wanted to go to the theatre alone and to chill out. But why do you make art or theatre? Because you want to make a statement. I don’t so much make plays for the public as with the public. Together you focus on a feeling, on pain, you get through it and then experience the hope together. Together! Without your having to participate actively or anything like that. The theatre is the best place for loners to be together and feel they have a bond without actually having to bond with anyone.
How will UNISONO
create a bond?
HARING: As a prayer. One of the things I focus on is what photographer Dash Snow shows in I Love You, Stupid!: the frayed ordinariness, a person going over the edge, almost choking in obscenity, but he goes on trying just to live and survive. Go on trying. The audience can watch and listen quietly without having to think about a story. We find that difficult today. The deluge of images has deprived us of the knack of looking. That’s why I love slow theatre which billows over you. (Jumps up) You know what I’d like? I’d like the play to feel like a big, collective Zen meditation. Everyone gets into a Zen state of mind, sees the details and so sees the thing as a whole in all its beauty.
HARING: As a prayer. One of the things I focus on is what photographer Dash Snow shows in I Love You, Stupid!: the frayed ordinariness, a person going over the edge, almost choking in obscenity, but he goes on trying just to live and survive. Go on trying. The audience can watch and listen quietly without having to think about a story. We find that difficult today. The deluge of images has deprived us of the knack of looking. That’s why I love slow theatre which billows over you. (Jumps up) You know what I’d like? I’d like the play to feel like a big, collective Zen meditation. Everyone gets into a Zen state of mind, sees the details and so sees the thing as a whole in all its beauty.
UNISONO opened on November 25th, 2015 at Toneelhuis in Antwerp. www.toneelhuis.be
PerformancesUNISONO
25 - 28.11.15 Toneelhuis, Leopoldstraat 31a, Antwerpen (BE)
02.12.15 Toneelschuur Haarlem (NL)
03.21.15 CC De Spil, Roeselare (BE)
04 - 05.12.15 Kaaitheater, Brussel (BE)
08.12.15 Grand Theatre, Groningen (NL)
10.12.15 CC Hasselt (BE)
11.12.15 Rotterdamse Schouwburg (NL)
12.12.15 Chassé Theater, Breda (NL)
15.12.15 Verkadefabriek, Den Bosch (NL)
16.12.15 Frascati, Amsterdam (NL)
17 - 18.12.15 Theater Kikker, Utrecht (NL)
19.12.15 Theater a/h Vrijthof, Maastricht (NL)
21.01.16 CC Maasmechelen (BE)
03 - 04.02.16 Campo, Gent (BE)
16 - 17.02.16 Frascati, Amsterdam (NL)
PerformancesUNISONO
25 - 28.11.15 Toneelhuis, Leopoldstraat 31a, Antwerpen (BE)
02.12.15 Toneelschuur Haarlem (NL)
03.21.15 CC De Spil, Roeselare (BE)
04 - 05.12.15 Kaaitheater, Brussel (BE)
08.12.15 Grand Theatre, Groningen (NL)
10.12.15 CC Hasselt (BE)
11.12.15 Rotterdamse Schouwburg (NL)
12.12.15 Chassé Theater, Breda (NL)
15.12.15 Verkadefabriek, Den Bosch (NL)
16.12.15 Frascati, Amsterdam (NL)
17 - 18.12.15 Theater Kikker, Utrecht (NL)
19.12.15 Theater a/h Vrijthof, Maastricht (NL)
21.01.16 CC Maasmechelen (BE)
03 - 04.02.16 Campo, Gent (BE)
16 - 17.02.16 Frascati, Amsterdam (NL)
Some press quotes on UNISONO
Some press quotes on UNISONO
Fullscreen
“Abke Haring is one of those actresses who immediately grabs your attention seemingly without having to do much. You could put a street map of an average-sized town in her hand for her to read out and you would still look on in fascination. It has to do with her intangible, mysterious personality, with her intensity, piercing look and flawless delivery. The Theo d’Or for her performance in Hamlet vs Hamlet certainly didn’t come out of the blue. (…) With UNISONO Abke Haring adds a fascinating solo production to her curriculum.
” – Johan Depaepe in Theaterkrant.nl, November 25th, 2015
“Haring stands up. Something inside her is reborn. That’s also the way you feel after this play. Reborn. It’s magic. (…) Haring acts a form rather than a character. She embodies a ritual that someone performs every day to get a handle on life in the midst of everything that is happening around them. That ritual seems to be searching for solace, or support. She voices a prayer we all pray in some way. Afterwards you want to hear it again. You want to look again but above all to read again. To sit once more on the merry-go-round of seemingly banal words and with every round experience the healing effect of those words ” – Els Van Steenberghe in Focus Knack, December 1st, 2015
“Not much happens. But what does happen is fascinating – not least thanks to Haring’s all-palpable presence, her intensity and her crystal-clear voice." (...) "Haring’s invisible but, consequently, all the more audible opposite number is a brilliant sound design by Jimi Zoet, which begins meditatively with the distant sound of birds and gradually builds to a hard ritualistic house drone as the electronic sounds become increasingly prominent. This is the moment that words fail with Haring. A moment of spell-binding beauty. And the rest? The rest is silence.” – Vincent Kouters in De Volkskrant, December 4rd, 2015
“Haring stands up. Something inside her is reborn. That’s also the way you feel after this play. Reborn. It’s magic. (…) Haring acts a form rather than a character. She embodies a ritual that someone performs every day to get a handle on life in the midst of everything that is happening around them. That ritual seems to be searching for solace, or support. She voices a prayer we all pray in some way. Afterwards you want to hear it again. You want to look again but above all to read again. To sit once more on the merry-go-round of seemingly banal words and with every round experience the healing effect of those words ” – Els Van Steenberghe in Focus Knack, December 1st, 2015
“Not much happens. But what does happen is fascinating – not least thanks to Haring’s all-palpable presence, her intensity and her crystal-clear voice." (...) "Haring’s invisible but, consequently, all the more audible opposite number is a brilliant sound design by Jimi Zoet, which begins meditatively with the distant sound of birds and gradually builds to a hard ritualistic house drone as the electronic sounds become increasingly prominent. This is the moment that words fail with Haring. A moment of spell-binding beauty. And the rest? The rest is silence.” – Vincent Kouters in De Volkskrant, December 4rd, 2015
A selection of Abke Haring's work
A selection of Abke Haring's work
De Indringer | Peter Missotten
Hoop | Abke Haring
A few of Abke Haring's photographs
A few of Abke Haring's photographs
Biography of Abke Haring
ABKE HARING
1978, born in Utrecht, has two brothers and two sisters.
1996, sees Ramsey Nasr’s graduation monologue De Doorspeler and decides to study at the school where Nasr trained as an actor.
2002, graduates from the Studio Herman Teirlinck and at the invitation of Luk Perceval performs in Het kouwe kind.
2006, is selected for the Theatre Festival with the solo Hoop.
2006, works regularly with Guy Cassiers, e.g. in Mefisto for ever (2006), Atropa. De wraak van de vrede (2008) and Bloed & rozen. Het lied van Jeanne en Gilles (2011).
2010, joins the Toneelhuis team of theatre-makers and actors.
2014, wins the Theo d’Or for her rendition of Hamlet in Hamlet vs Hamlet (written by Tom Lanoye and directed by Guy Cassiers).
2015, opening of UNISONO
https://vimeo.com/channels/abkeharing
https://toneelhuis.be/nl/profile/abke-haring
https://www.instagram.com/abkeharing/
http://abkeharing.tumblr.com/
1978, born in Utrecht, has two brothers and two sisters.
1996, sees Ramsey Nasr’s graduation monologue De Doorspeler and decides to study at the school where Nasr trained as an actor.
2002, graduates from the Studio Herman Teirlinck and at the invitation of Luk Perceval performs in Het kouwe kind.
2006, is selected for the Theatre Festival with the solo Hoop.
2006, works regularly with Guy Cassiers, e.g. in Mefisto for ever (2006), Atropa. De wraak van de vrede (2008) and Bloed & rozen. Het lied van Jeanne en Gilles (2011).
2010, joins the Toneelhuis team of theatre-makers and actors.
2014, wins the Theo d’Or for her rendition of Hamlet in Hamlet vs Hamlet (written by Tom Lanoye and directed by Guy Cassiers).
2015, opening of UNISONO
https://vimeo.com/channels/abkeharing
https://toneelhuis.be/nl/profile/abke-haring
https://www.instagram.com/abkeharing/
http://abkeharing.tumblr.com/
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"I don’t compromise. If you do that, you disavow yourself."
A selection of Abke Haring's work
