Les Aveugles

This strange theatrical jewel – Les Aveugles – is perhaps the most abstract and least symbolic text by Maurice Maeterlinck. It takes us into the verbal groping of twelve blind people lost in the middle of a forest, where the sounds of nature herald death and bring the drama to its climax, with no way out. The young composer from Ghent, Daan Janssens, and Liege artist Patrick Corillon – also a man of the theatre – bring us a musical theatre adaptation of this philosophical parable. They propose a radical rereading in which man – who is blinded by catastrophes – is called back to the lightness of existence which is the unceasing flow of life and death. While the music and sung text evoke tragic tension in a slow crescendo, the staging opts for a limpid representation, lighting up those who are blind with playful poetry in a world that no longer sees.