At the theatre

First time in almost a year (not counting outdoor shows). I took this before the show proper started. It may not look very promising, but it was a show about Jacques Brel by a Belgian rapper, Mochélan, and musician Rémon Jr. We may not look like rap fans, but we always sign up for shows by Belgians because they are virtually always unusual and compelling. Also, the Belgian sense of humour always seems very close to British humour.

And this one was no exception. A minimalist-looking set turned out to be very inventive, because once the lights went down there turned out to be an almost invisible screen between actors and audience, on which semi-transparent images were projected, so their couch suddenly seemed to be in the middle of a forest. Rémon made electronic music on a "pad" (I expect if you see lots of rap you are familiar with this, but we weren't). And Mochélan interpreted less well known songs, poetry, and prose by Brel in his own way. It was a tremendous tour de force, mingling humour, rage, grief, lyricism. There's a trailer here but it doesn't really capture it well.

Mochélan says: "For me, Jacques was the first rapper in history, he too talked about social injustice and the deep sickness eating away at our society."

And Rémon (who is French) says: "Brel is also closely linked to my discovery of Belgium, the self-mocking and black humour of Belgians, the sometimes surreal atmosphere in this country." 

Standing ovation at the end. A great start to the season; we've booked for a bunch of other shows, some carried over from last year, so fingers crossed they actually happen this year.