The Following Story

ADAPTED FROM THE FOLLOWING STORY BY CEES NOOTEBOOM.

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© Harvill Press in Great Britain.
Premiered at BAC, London in May 2001.

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The story, told in the first person, of Herman Mussert – Classics teacher, travel-writer, adulterer, philosopher, and amateur of tinned foods. Torn between insight and incredulity, Mussert has encountered the limits of ‘the life of the mind’. He cannot preserve his present at a distance from his past. He is unable to reconcile a lifetime’s meditation on eternity with the apparent consequences of death. He can no longer coordinate body and soul. The resulting disorientation is conveyed by two performers who collaborate and compete in their portrayal of his memories, his longings, his uncertainties. These same performers embody, at the same time, the two women who have long obsessed him: his mistress and his muse.

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CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM

Adaptation and direction: Sinéad Rushe
Performance: Jenny Boot and Sinéad Rushe
Sound preproduction: Peter Rose
Sound and lighting: Des Demetsopoullos
Programme and flyer design: Dermot Rushe