Victoria ¸BUNG (Practice)

‹BUNG means practice. It's also the title of a surprisingly original play by Victoria, a Ghent-based ensemble making its U.S. premiere at the Wexner Center. In a performance featuring six children interacting with older counterparts on screen, ¸BUNG provides a new perspective on what consistitutes "adult" behavior.
"Of an incredibly fragile beauty...simply breathtaking."--Het Volkskrant

Belgian writer/director Josse De Pauw conceived of ¸BUNG for the Ghent-based ensemble Victoria, known for their novel approach to youth-centered themes (at times in collaboration with their hometown cohorts Les Ballets C. de la B.). Like El Automovil Gris (presented at the Wexner Center last fall), ¸BUNG innovatively explores the interplay of live actors and cinematic images, but toward a very different result and impact. The work has been a hit at many international festivals.

In ¸BUNG the young actors (ages 11-13) are seen in front of a black-and-white film that takes place in a splendid villa where a group of adults are having a sumptuous dinner party. The upscale friends' convivial social occasion appears somewhat forced, however. They drink to be able to talk to each other and end up drinking too much and letting too many things slip in an embarrassing display of pettiness.

On stage, the children are dressed exactly like the adults in the film—miniatures in color of the grownups on screen—as they skilfully yet guilelessly recite the adults' lines and mimic the film's sound effects. ¸BUNG artfully throws into high relief the way children practice how to become adults as it holds a mirror up to the supposedly mature role models who show them the life that awaits them.

‹BUNG will be performed in Flemish and subtitled in English.