Home Sweet Home
Synopsis
An actor, an actress, four percussionists and a string quartet come together to tell the poignant story of a man and a woman who are reunited after a war, but find they can no longer live together.The war is over. A soldier returns from battle, back home. What he finds is a bare and deserted village. There is no one there. In his mind, his wife comes to life, as memories, delusions, trauma, longing and hope weave the days together. Until suddenly, his wife is actually standing before him.
Classical and contemporary music, inventive soundscapes, self-developed instruments and musical sets: music plays a central role in Via Berlin’s work. The makers regard text and music — and therefore actor and musician — as completely equal means of telling a story. Music and text form a single whole.
With Home Sweet Home, we take our exploration one step further, and on a larger scale. The female string players opposite the male percussionists create a tension that closely reflects the theme of the production. At the same time, the combination of the distinctive timbres of strings and percussion offers a broad spectrum of possibilities for evoking contrasting atmospheres: masculinity versus femininity, violence versus tenderness, rhythm versus melody, from the subtle to the deafening.
A Via Berlin production in co-production with Slagwerk Den Haag.
Premiered at the International Oerol theater festival, followed by performances at festival Over t IJ' in Amsterdam and toured the Dutch theaters 2013.
Awarded with the Charlotte Köhlerprice 2014, as part of the Via Berlin war-triptych.
Reviews
“An exquisitely beautiful fable about a woman welcoming home her husband as he returns from war.”— Ron Rijghard – NRC Handelsblad
“Considered a highlight by many — and rightly so — was Via Berlin’s Home Sweet Home, a superb music theatre production about domestic turmoil when a soldier returns home from the front.”— Eric Nederkoorn – Dagblad van het Noorden
“Breathtakingly beautiful classical music.”— Jan Pieter Ekker – Het Parool
“It is a magnificent musical battle of the sexes, one that ultimately has no winner.”— Vincent Kouters – de Volkskrant
“The Ragazze String Quartet and Slagwerk Den Haag provide a powerful musical translation of the tensions that arise in Home Sweet Home.”
Marco Weijers – De Telegraaf