Jackie Theater Malpertuis & Lien Wildemeersch

The virtuoso British cellist Jacqueline du Pré, nicknamed Smiley, travels around the world with a passion for life. Her captivating, intuitive playing style and incomparable virtuosity touch the hearts of many. She has a remarkable sense of humour and lives life very intensely.

Suddenly Jackie senses that something was wrong, but doctors just tell her to rest. At the age of 28, she is diagnosed with MS. She ends up in a wheelchair, unable to play the cello ever again. Her condition deteriorates mercilessly ultimately causing her death in 1987 at the age of 42.

To come closer to the human being behind the genius, Lien Wildemeersch has immersed herself intensively in ‘Jackie’ du Pré’s life. All this time, she has carried Jackie within her as a kind of travelling companion.

This is the first theatre project that Wildemeersch has made herself. It will not be a biography of Jacqueline du Pré, but rather an encounter between Lien and Jackie, a search for what connects us as human beings and what we can bear in the sometimes hideous unpredictability of life.  

Wildemeersch is also part of the cast of the NTGent production Yellow, directed by Luk Perceval. Previously she played in numerous NTGent performances such as Opening Night, Platonov  and 4.48 Psychosis.