Keep Going
Just when 139-year-old Eddie is about to make his dream of going to Sun City (a town for the elderly) come true, Beth (his 140-year-old sister) turns up. Without an income or a roof over her head since she lost her pension, she moves in with her brother. Living together proves challenging and they constantly step on each other’s toes. Will Eddie follow his dream or look after his sister? Why is Beth increasingly bumping into things? And what about the strange puddle in the middle of the living room? Is disaster inevitable?
A Compagnie3637 production
Supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles theatre service and the SACD.
Without words or taboos, Keep Going is a high dive into the troubled waters of old age. The audience embarks on a unusual, offbeat fantasy with two super-centenarians.
Our approach puts extreme old age centre-stage. We developed a universe around the two characters in which we shine a light on different aspects of old age. In our story, Beth and Eddie are confronted by society’s ageist rejection of them and their needs and they find themselves left to their own devices. As a result of this involuntary exile, their living together raises questions about dependence, loss of freedom, mistreatment, oversight and survival.
Above all, through these characters we wanted to express our young-adult perspective on this state. We wanted to look far ahead into the future of our human condition, and in doing so criticise the loss of values that are important to us, concepts like independence and freedom. Far from being something urgent, short-term or to be streamlined, we see old age (including our own) as something to look forward to, in contrast to the prevailing image painted by our consumerist, ageist society.
Today, as artists, we think that it is crucial to think long term; to dare to hope for a sustainable future and work towards a society in which every individual, irrespective of age, can Keep Going and have a place that is respected and respectable.
- Actor-Directors : Sophie Linsmaux, Aurelio Mergola
- Staging : Aurélie Deloche
- Movement Design : Sophie Leso
- Sound : Nicola Testa
- Makeup : Florence Thonet
- Lighting : Damien Zuidhoek
- Props : Noémie Vanheste
- Script Advisor : Thomas van Zuylen
- Management : Mathieu Bastyns
- Staging and Stage Management Assistant : Justine Ruchat
- Photography : Marie Hélène Tercafs
- Production : Compagnie 3636
- With support from the Ministry of Culture Theatre Service and SACD
Du 11 au 22 mars et du 1er au 5 avril au théâtre Marni
reprises : du 25 au 27 février 2016 au Centre Culturel Jacques Franck
du 1er au 3 mars 2016 à l’Eden