Toverberg

With De Toverberg (1924) Thomas Mann wrote a crystal-clear analysis of the ideological oppositions for the outbreak of the First World War. At a turning point between an old and a new world the bourgeois class is engulfed in life on top of a mountain, in a healing process that seems to have no end. Almost a hundred years later, we find ourselves again in an impasse ; never before has the gap between rich and poor been as deep as now, never have 'those who live above' had so much more than 'those below'.

This performance is not an adaptation or a criticism of Thomas Mann : it continues writing where Mann stopped. Through the deconstruction of the written material Louis Janssens and Ferre Marnef construct a new, contemporary Toverberg as a reaction to the oppositions and the problems of this time. With a feeling for monumentality Desnor wants to put a new mountain next to De Toverberg of Mann. This performance was written as a Bildungsroman, be it from a common instead of an individual story.

Louis Janssens and Ferre Marnef both graduated from KASK, respectively in drama and graphic design and have been working together under the name Desnor since 2012. They make visual theatre with a good deal of humour and social criticism. Just like in their other work, such as #BOS and Galileo, building, breaking down, moving and representing will be an important part of the performance.