FC Bergman makes its US debut with 300 el x 50 el x 30 el at BAM (photo © Kurt Van der Elst)
300 EL x 50 EL x 30 EL
Harvey Theater at the BAM Strong
651 Fulton St.
September 28 — October 1, $44-$120, 7:30
www.bam.org
www.fcbergman.be/en
Belgian theater collective FC Bergman is making its US debut at BAM with its imaginative 2011 work, 300 el x 50 el x 30 el, which opens BAM’s 2022 Next Wave festival. Running September 28 to October 1, the seventy-five-minute wordless multimedia piece transforms the Harvey stage into a village with six shacks in the woods to bring to life a biblical-inspired anarchic tale of animals, nature, humanity, and technology as a flood approaches. Created by Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans, Bart Hollanders, Matteo Simoni, Thomas Verstraeten, and Marie Vinck, the widely hailed 2011 work, which has toured the world, features sets by FC Bergman and Matthijs Kuyer, camera direction by Thomas Verstraeten, and costumes by Judith Van Herck and is performed by Aerts, Agemans, Simoni, Verstraeten, and Vinck along with Gert Portael, Herwig Ilegems, Shana Van Looveren, Evelien Bosmans, Ramona Verkerk, Arne Focketeyn, Oscar Van Rompay, Ruud Gielens, Gregory Frateur, Mattis Devoldere Contesse, Karen Vanparys, Yorrith de Bakker, and Jeroen Perceval.
Founded in 2008, the Antwerp-based company, which has been associate artists with the Toneelhuis in Antwerp since 2013, has a repertoire that includes the modern parable The Sheep Song; an adaptation of William Gaddis’s National Book Award–winning 1975 novel JR; the wordless monologue Terminator Trilogy; and the descriptively titled Walking down the Champs-Elysées with a tortoise to get a better view of the world, but it is hard to drink tea on an ice floe when everyone is drunk. The troupe is known for its unique approach to storytelling and its immersive environments that should feel right at home at the Harvey, where there will be a celebration with members of the cast and crew following the opening-night performance.