Roy Peters/Stichting Watergat (Netherlands)
End Of Story
A performance without an ending The beginning is an ending: three men search for the conclusion of a performance they have made. But how do you do that? Which gesture is the last? Are you really sure that you want to leave and that you are not curious about what might happen next?
In a variety of ways the performers attempt to bring closure. Apparently, there is an energetic force that prevents them from parting. After what should have been the last breath, there nonetheless follows another, and another. Whoever leaves returns.
A dance scene does not become a splendid finale, but remains a continual circular movement. And even the overly disciplined gymnastic exercise terminations do not signal the onset of rest or standstill; instead they are transformed into a series of movements, the next-to-last of which inevitably leads to another series.
The question at the core of this piece is as simple as it is wide-ranging: what is going to happen after this? What comes at the end of life, what is no more when we cease to be, where is the border of the knowable world, and what is over that border?
The performers’ desire to answer these questions is their motivation for this exchange. But the only certainty is that of not knowing. They are like children: boys who play with life and death and discover that death is unknowable to the living.
End of Story is a physical, spatial and playful exploration of the boundary between being and not-being. A theatrical investigation of an attempted completion.
End of Story was created by Roy Peters with financial support of the FAPK (National Fund for the Performing Arts). Performers: Andreas Scharfenberg, Melih Gençboyaci and Roy Peters. Conceived and directed by Roy Peters. Marc Vanrunxt, dramaturge. Coen Jongsma, light designer.