living apartment together
The new film project on location by Yves Degryse, artistic director at BERLIN and NTGent, ingeniously recounts the extraordinary lives of the residents of a flat block. About turning points, invisible synchronicity and the realisation that each beginning is nothing more than a sequel.
MAKERS
Yves Degryse / BERLIN & NTGent
PREMIERE
8 May 2025
SYNOPSIS
Know thy neighbour... Living Apartment Together is set at dusk in the city. A group of spectators, wearing headphones, gaze mesmerised at the side wall of a flat block. Scenes unfold in six flats that highlight the touching beauty of our everyday existence. Some residents know each other's deepest souls or hear through the thin walls the small and big dramas unfolding in their neighbours' homes. Others stick to a polite nod as they cross in the stairwell.
In this new technological tour de force by BERLINs Yves Degryse, brand-new co-artistic director of Belgian city theatre NTGent, video projection plays an important role. Magically, the facade of a flat block opens up and we see what goes on in the various flats. It zooms in and out, alternating between delicate miniatures and wide-screen action. Headphones place you in the centre of the action one moment and then make you feel like you are listening in from a distance, while all around life in the city rages on. Apartment dwellers step out of the projection and observe themselves from a distance or strike up a chat in the street.
Living Apartment Together premieres on 8 May 2025 and is inspired by Georges Perec's fascinating novel Life, an instruction manual. This new on-location film project is set two hours before the sudden death of one of the flat block's residents, an avid puzzler who was just putting the finishing touches to what turns out to be a copy of the six flats and the situations taking place there at that very moment.
For the script, Degryse interviews people with a special story in different cities. He turns them into scenarios for the different flats, together with Angelo Tijssens, who previously worked as a scriptwriter on Lukas Dhont's Oscar-nominated film Close, among others. Living Apartment Together thus floats on scripted reality, with separate stories of residents who are nevertheless connected.
Living Apartment Together is ideally suited for touring, with about 20 people from the neighbourhood cast in the roles of the residents at each new location. The costumes join the tour and get new owners in each city.
CREDITS
concept en direction: Yves Degryse / script: Yves Degryse, Angelo Tijssens / artistic advice: Beyond The Spoken/Barbara Raes / production: NTGent & BERLIN / music composition: Peter Van Laerhoven / sound design: Winne Clement / coproduction: to be confirmed
With the support of the Flemish Government.
PRESS QUOTES
(about previous productions of BERLIN)
✒ "The genius theatre film The making of Berlin overwhelms from start to finish"
--- De Standaard (BE) ***** /// Top ten best performances of 2022
✒ "Inimitably, this production brings together everything BERLIN excels at: a clever play on fact and fiction, documentary theatre and music."
--- De Morgen (BE) on 'The making of Berlin' /// Top ten best performances of 2022
✒ "The making of Berlin is an overwhelming and moving ode to the power of stories, and how they can lift people above themselves and bring them together."
--- Etcetera (BE)
✒ "To theatre group BERLIN, meanwhile, we owe one of the most important productions of this year"
--- Volkskrant (NL) ***** about 'The making of Berlin'
✒ "True Copy uses theatre simply and above all grandiosely as a tool between imagination and credulity. What is true, what is false? Is cult art or counterfeit?"
--- Trouw (NL) ***** about 'True Copy'
✒ "Zvizdal is a poignant, flawless film portrait of two old people and the things that pass."
--- De Standaard (BE) ****
✒ "BERLIN elevates non-communication to art"
--- Volkskrant (NL) about 'Tagfish'
BIOGRAPHY
Yves Degryse (°1977) is the artistic director of BERLIN, the company he founded in 2003 with Bart Baele and Caroline Rochlitz. Alongside Barbara Raes and Melih Gençboyacı, he was recently appointed artistic director of NTGent. Since 2022 he has been the sole artistic director of BERLIN, with The making of Berlin as his first creation. At the same time, he created space within the company to support young creators, two associate artists who each carry out a project within BERLIN.
From 2000 to 2009 Degryse was part of the theatre collective SKaGeN. He trained as an actor with Dora van der Groen and
performed with several companies (De Queeste, De Onderneming, De Maan, Comp. Marius). Besides his work in theatre, he can also regularly be seen on television and on the big screen (Chantal, Callboys, De Helaasheid der Dingen, Broken Circle Breakdown, etc).
ON BERLIN
‘Armed with cameras, interview techniques, editing tables and actors, BERLIN portrays reality like a painter used to do: with a bit more color, lively angles of incidence and a brush setting that betrays a critical undertone.’
--- Knack Focus (Belgian magazine)
BERLIN was founded in 2003 by artistic director Yves Degryse together with Bart Baele and Caroline Rochlitz. Alongside Barbara Raes and Melih Gençboyacı, Yves Degryse is now one of the three artistic directors of NTGent. BERLIN is joining in as house-maker.
The productions of BERLIN are positioned on the cusp of documentary and theatre. Each creation starts from reality and is never limited to just one discipline in the creative process. Content decides how a story is told: through images, live music, technology, text, as an installation...
In 2024, BERLIN celebrates its 20th anniversary. The foundations for the company were laid in 2003 but it was on 26 October 2004 that Jerusalem, BERLIN's first production, saw the light at arts centre Vooruit (Ghent, BE).