Christiaan Bastiaans

Winter 2000/2001

On March 29, 2001 psychiatric patients conducted a live performance titled Real Lear, roughly based on Shakespeare's drama King Lear. The text in the performance was a montage of actual text snippets from King Lear along with texts of the performers that emerged from their responses to characters in King Lear.

The live performance was held in the intimate front room of 'Het Vijfde Seizoen', where players and public were sitting closely together opposite each other. Outside the windows -overlooking the forest- video monitors facing inwards were placed. On these female performers observed the public. The whole set-up was a confrontation between performers and audience; an 'observation environment' as an anthropological study.