PEAK MYTIKAS (On the top of Mount Olympus) | Madách Nemzetközi Színházi Találkozó

Concept & direction: Jan Fabre

PEAK MYTIKAS (On the top of Mount Olympus) 18

Troubleyn Laboratorium, Antwerpen, Belgium

Director: Jan Fabre

Performed in English with short sections (repetitions) of Italian, German, Croatian, Gaelic and French with English and Hungarian subtitles

8 hours, without breaks.

The highest peak of Mount Olympus is called Mytikas. A Greek word for Nose. As the gods live on that mountain, the Nose is the nose of all the gods. They enjoy the smells that come from the humans, who live in the valley, on the earth. The humans sacrifice herbs, animals and other humans. They forge weapons and make war. War smells, death smells, love smells. The gods enjoy the fragrance of the world.

Our host is the lovely gender-fluid god: Dionysus. They introduce us to the world of raves. They celebrate all human things: love, peace, unity and respect, briefly p.l.u.r., but the opposite as well: hatred, struggle, disharmony and contempt. In this spectacle, everything is possible: the fulfillment of enchanting dreams and vicious grief, of cheerful love and horrible pain. The spectacle is a catharsis, a purification: face the worst, and be cleansed.

Life and death are interchangeable. Old, dead heroes appear and revive their lives. Oedipus, for example, the tragic king who killed his father and married his mother, he who tried to escape from his fate and on the contrary embraced it, he who poked out his eyes because he didn’t want to see the world anymore. But is he really blind? Or is he just a coward like all of us? And his daughter, Antigone, the first woman who dared to say ‘no’ to the power of politics and war, the first anarchist in history, how does she look at our world?

They are not dead, they live amongst us, and they ask the same old questions.

From ancient times another anarchist appears Prometheus, the man who dared to climb the Mytikas and insulted the gods by stealing the arrows of the lightning and giving them to the mortals. He who wanted to liberate mankind and paid a terrible price for it. What is his message to us, after all those centuries of torments?

Concept & direction: Jan Fabre
Text: Johan de Boose
Music: Alma Auer
Dramaturgy: Miet Martens
Lighting Design & Technical: Wout Janssens
Choreography: Jan Fabre & Ivana Jozic

Performed by Alma Auer, Annabelle Chambon, Anny Czupper, Cédric Charron, Conor Doherty, Gustav Koenigs, Irene Urciuoli, Ivana Jozic, Matteo Franco, Pietro Quadrino and Stella Höttler

Guest dramaturgy: Sylvia Solakidi
Costume design: Kasia Mielczarek
Velvet capes by Aravinda Rodenburg Bespoke Tailor
Sound engineer: Sam Geerts
Technician: Kevin Deckers
Business management & titles: Joost Claes
Press and communication: Sophie Lukersmith
Photography: Hanna Auer

International touring management: Aldo Grompone
Co-produced by Carnezzeria and Perpodium with the support of the Belgian Federal government tax shelter.
With sincere thanks to the Board of Directors and General Assembly of Troubleyn/Jan Fabre vzw

Concept & direction

Jan Fabre

Main Stage

Jan Fabre

Born in Antwerp in 1958, the visionary Belgian artist Jan Fabre is a leading innovator and one of the most influential figures in the international contemporary art world. Known for his contributions to visual art, theater, and literature, he is the first living artist who was invited for large-scale solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2008 and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg in 2017. He remains the only artist to have received the honor of the Cour d’Honneur at the Festival of Avignon on three separate occasions (2001, 2003, and 2005), and the only contemporary artist commissioned to create a new work for the Felsenreitschule at the Salzburg Festival in 2007.

With his theatre company Troubleyn, Jan Fabre has been touring the world for over 40 years, presenting his groundbreaking productions at major leading theatres and international festivals, receiving worldwide acclaim. He has won over 50 international theatre, dance and visual arts awards and prizes. Fabre's unique place in the Western theatre canon was recently confirmed by his inclusion in the prestigious series The Great European Stage Directors (Methuen/Drama), overseen by the influential theatre historian Simon Shepherd. The series begins with Stanislavski and ends with Jan Fabre.

He describes himself as a ‘consilience artist’, a merging of elements from different disciplines guided by fact-based theory and practice across disciplines. In theater, he redefined performance art with his concept of ‘real action and real time’ evident in works like This is Theatre as was to be Expected and Foreseen (1982) and The Power of Theatrical Madness (1984). His internationally renowned masterpiece, the monumental 24-hour performance Mount Olympus – To glorify the cult of tragedy (2015), celebrated Greek tragedy’s essence, followed by Peak Mytikas (On the top of Mount Olympus) (2023).

In visual art, Fabre’s symbolic use of materials like beetle wings, bone, and blood reveals his fascination with nature and spirituality. Permanent installations like Heaven of Delight at the Royal Palace of Brussels and The Man Who Measures the Clouds (1998) in global venues reflect his impact.

Beyond visual and performance art, Fabre is also a respected author. His numerous theater texts are highly regarded by theater directors, academics, and performers. His Jan Fabre Teaching Group promotes his method of ‘physiological acting’ to new generations, passing on his unique artistic language. Fabre’s daily reflections are captured in his ‘Night Diaries’ a series of personal and often poetic musings published in multiple languages.

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