FEATS 2009: Brussels

For the third year running, Semi-Circle was represented at FEATS – this year in the EU’s beautiful capital city of Brussels. As always there was a broad range of plays contributed by theatre groups from all over Europe (Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Stockholm – and of course Switzerland). They included plays by Woody Allen, Anton Chekhov, Eugène Ionescu as well as plays by lesser known authors and 5 original scripts. There were also the fringe performances which this year included a contribution from our friends from the Gay Beggars theatre group of Basel who gave a performance of “Resurrection Blues”. Semi-Circle’s entry was an original script by Sarah Wooley: “Folie à Trois” which had previously only been “seen” by our local audiences in Semi-Circle’s Spring Production at the Neues Theater am Bahnhof Dornach (although it had previously been “heard” by a much larger audience of BBC listeners).

As always each play was followed by hefty discussions among the audience regarding the merits (and otherwise) of the performances just seen with everyone trying to out-guess each other as to the adjudicator’s likely comments.

Although we spent a lot of the time in the Centre Culturel where the festival was being held, there was still time left over to take a look at the beautiful centre of Brussels and to sample some of the local bière, moules and pommes frites; to drool over the chocolate fountains, and to join the groups of tourists taking photos of Maneken Pis; or to watch thousands of people running all over the place (which turned out to be the local marathon).

Finally, with everybody thoroughly sleep deprived, the moment came for the adjudicator to announce his awards. This was preceded by the prize giving for “FEATLETS” - the junior version of FEATS which was being held simultaneously nearby. Again – as always – there were some surprises (and controversies) regarding the adjudicator’s decisions. As far as “Folie à Trois” was concerned, we were rather disappointed. Although we were very happy to accept his criticisms, we did feel that he could have been a little more constructive regarding the positive aspects of our performance and in helping us to understand how we might have improved upon our production. Our disappointment, however, was somewhat offset by the numerous positive comments received from people from the other groups.

There was also considerable discussion about the appropriateness of the adjudicator awarding the discretionary prize for the film shown in “Shakespeare in Paris” (ACTS, Stuttgart) and the best actor award and third prize being given for an actor seen mainly on film in “An Excerpt from the Pillowman” (Het Homerostheater, The Hague) – apparently the adjudicator had confused FEATS with being a film festival rather than a live theatre festival! Nevertheless, most people felt that the 1st prize awarded to the NWTC (Luxembourg) performance of “The Lesson” by Eugène Ionesco was very well deserved and that the performances of both actors – particularly the male lead – were outstanding. So, apart from the disappointment of the adjudication, we all had an excellent and memorable theatrical weekend.

Our thanks to everyone who contributed to making this an enjoyable weekend and to our hosts: EEC, Brussels (who incidentally were at the same time celebrating their centenary!!)

Michael Clarke