Multidisciplinaire performance / English Spoken

24-03 t/m 27-03

Anna Verkouteren Jansen

Junebug

Twin Peaks meets Astro-TV, but gay. June leads an invisible existence in a log cabin in the deep south of the US. Surrounded by forests, she spends her days in front of the television – until the signal starts to falter. With static on our heels, we flash through an American dreamscape of television mediums, takeaway burritos, foggy motel rooms and ghosts from the past.

Junebug is a cinematic and tactile performance about the things within ourselves that we would rather not look at. About escapism, loneliness and the meaninglessness of existence. In a light-hearted and mystical way, Anna Verkouteren Jansen shows how we all deal with the great nothingness in our own way. As you are transported to the Paris, Texas-like inner world of lonely butch June, a weird, sensitive and darkly comical story unfolds. 

Reality and imagination flow seamlessly into each other in this hallucinatory sound film. Through surround sound (designed by Ard Kok) and a touch of Efteling, you find yourself in the middle of June's world of escapism, mourning, Mariah Carey and empty rooms. Junebug pushes reality aside and shows what moves behind the curtains: a place that is not visible, but all the more palpable.

Anna Verkouteren Jansen voices all the characters herself and worked closely with composer Ard Kok.

Anna: "When I was confronted with death as a child, I took refuge in fantasy as a response to the emptiness. Gradually, escapism became second nature to me. In Junebug, we see June escaping into television, her new-age mother Barb calls TV medium Magic Tina every week, who in turn believes mainly in transactions. I find it moving how people create stories to get a grip on the randomness of existence."

About Anna Verkouteren Jansen:
Anna Verkouteren Jansen (1992) is a director, theatre maker, writer and voice actor. She graduated from the directing programme at the Maastricht Theatre Academy in 2017 and has worked with Frascati Productions, Monty Kultuurfaktorij, Over het IJ Festival and Bloos / PLAN Brabant, among others.

Anna's work is cinematic and darkly comical. It is about the power of our imagination. Anna loves small people with big dreams: she creates hallucinatory portraits of these loners and underdogs, exploring different layers of consciousness.