August 10, 2016 · Team HG
This new production by Solace I Guess takes place in Africa and the Netherlands. Anne van Slageren, director and musician: “It is partly a story based on truth. It conveys the message that even though we have different backgrounds, cultures, sexes, and skin colors, at the core we are all equal.” The performance is about a European man and an African woman, and a murder that defined their lives.
In 2008, Anne van Slageren released a solo album under the name Solace I Guess: Feelings, flowers and friends. This was followed in 2011 by White Label, performed at Noorderzon, for which he ventured into a crossover with theater and film for the first time. Now, in 2016, Van Slageren is making his presence felt again. In January of this year, his documentary Missy Slagge? (Mission accomplished?) about their family's missionary years in Cameroon was shown on FryslânDok and NPO2. And now there is Updiggin’, in which he once again draws from the same pool of experiences gained in his youth. That we live in a capricious world with cultural differences and unequal opportunities. That despite this, or perhaps precisely to keep this world livable, we must try to resolve contradictions and seek personal connection.
The story of the performance and the CD takes place in Africa and the Netherlands. A white woman is murdered in the presence of her young son. A black man, recognized by the boy, is wrongly convicted. Now that the boy is an adult, he receives letters. Letters that take him back to the past and to Africa. A compelling musical treatise on love, guilt, and revenge.
The story is told in three ways: with songs, with images, and with video narrations by two characters from the story: the murdered white mother and an African medicine man. Anne van Slageren: “To the sounds of the balafon, they take the audience from Europe to Africa and into the thoughts of the characters and their entanglements. We accompany them with our live band while they sing alternately solo and in unison.”
The CD will also be officially released on August 24th. It is already available to listen to online at https://open.spotify.com/album/03nzbAaEzYWvKd3yy4HEvoThe album was financed through crowdfunding. Anne van Slageren: “Thanks to more than a hundred donors, we were able to fund the production of the album.”
From the end of October, the pop opera can be seen in Appingedam, Winsum, Veendam, and Leek. There, the performance features a special opening act with local artists and musicians, tailor-made in collaboration with welfare organizations and local theaters.
www.solaceIguess.com
https://www.instagram.com/veravanupdiggin/
https://www.facebook.com/solaceiguess/
