DOUBLE BILL

BIGMOUTH & SMALLWAR

SKaGeN in collaboration with Richard Jordan Productions and Theatre Royal Plymouth.

★★★★ “Brilliant ... a fascinating experience.” - Lyn Gardner, Guardian (UK)

★★★★★ “Enthralling roller-coaster through history and its (in) humanity by one-man powerhouse Valentijn Dhaenens” - The List Magazine (UK)

★★★★ "Seldom has so much horror been made so tangible through such intimacy." (De Standaard)

In BigMouth (DeGroteMond) Valentijn Dhaenens presents a tribute to 2,500 years of delivering speeches. With fragments from well-known and lesser-known speeches, he shows that the tricks of the retoric scene have hardly changed. The sermon, the declaration of war, the goodbye, the final plea, the victory speech, the eulogy ... Those who choose their words well can turn the weakest arguments into the strongest. The absolute truth does not exist. It’s a beautiful lie for the person that aspires to world domination, or desires the hand of a beloved.

BigMouth has been performed more than 300 times and in 25 countries. The production received innumerable five-star rave reviews and international awards.

In 2018, after exactly 10 years, actor Valentijn Dhaenens will conclude this story with a final tour. BigMouth will be presented together with SmallWar, a monologue Valentijn Dhaenens made a few years later and since then had an unprecedented international success.

In SKaGeN’s BigMouth, the masses were played by historical speeches from world leaders, who in this way drove them to war. SmallWar shows another part of the picture. For what are the consequences of those stirring words for the ordinary man in the street? What about the people who have to translate those words into deeds? Dhaenens takes the floor again and zooms in on a field hospital during the First World War. A cynical nurse, a deserter, an ambulance driver going back and forth, a disillusioned physician/surgeon, ... they all bring their honest story.