De duivel beduveld (The devil bedeviled) is the Dutch remake of the homonymous French creation, Le diable abandonné,  from Patrick Corillon and Dominique Roodthooft. Thomas Smetryns composed the music.

On tour through Flanders and the Netherlands untill 23 April 2010

A son refuses to take over the marionette theatre of his father. He is not interested in letting the puppets talk, instead he wants to address the people directly. He is full of good intensions, but unfortunately he can never find the right words. In the middle of his desperation, he is seduced by the devil and his book, in which all the written words are true and sincere. Strengthened by this pact with the devil, the son sets forth into the world.

LOD is a production house in Ghent for opera, musicals and other musical theatre. In their performances, they strive to bring together different artistic genres. And their most recent production, De duivel beduveld (The Devil Bedevilled) is a brilliant success in this respect. The audience is served a performance that moves it visually, musically and verbally.
Het Nieuwsblad - An Braeck - 18/02/2010

The music was composed specially for the Dutch-language version by Thomas Smetryns. You notice this right from the first note: it starts off at a brisk tempo, but soon slows down, with a real aesthetic feeling for timing. Playing subtly on the diverse atmospheres evoked by the text, the piano ripples or gushes along like a river. The inexhaustible creativity of the performance can also be found in the music.
Cutting Edge - Bregt Van Wijnendaele - 19/02/2010)


And that's the small wonder of this performance: Patrick Corillon does succeed in surprising you right up until the end.

Utopia Parkway - Hans-Maarten Post - 23/02/2010

The music, the puppet show and the narrator are three media that force us to listen, look and read. This gives De duivel beduveld many different layers, but it is never confusing: the different media communicate so well with each other that they are mutually reinforcing or take over from each other, but without ever eclipsing one another.
Zone09 - Evelyne Coussens - 24/02/2010

De duivel beduveld is a magnificent visual experience that is moving in its intelligent simplicity. Dancing letters, hidden trapdoors on the stage and swaying white sheets make this play unique. And the demonic HA HA HA laughter and superb music by Thomas Smetryns leave you with goosebumps. As for Karlijn Sileghem, she once again in this play displays a sample of acting talent at its best. Her penetrating voice as she narrates the story blurs the boundary between pictures and words. The audience really has the impression that she is telling her story for the first time, without any preparation whatsoever. It’s as if we were all sitting around a campfire a thousand years before the advent of television. But the play is not limited to sound and image. You can also read parts of the story, which give this drama an extra dimension. If you are looking for an original narrative concept, then this performance is an absolute gem.
CJP - Ellen Kil - 26/02/2010

To say that this creation is “rich” is an understatement. You don’t come across such shows very often: performances that are multidisciplinary in the real sense of the term because the one medium (wordcraft in this case) imbues the other (puppet theatre) to deliver something new. The effect is that of a quiet reading room in which everyone is taking in the same thing until, all of a sudden, a collective grin rises from the benches.
De Standaard - Wouter Hillaert - 04/03/2010

De duivel beduveld is a story about a generation gap. This gap, however, is filled with letters, words, sentences and stories that are not only narrated but also written. This take on the original Le diable abandonné processes all kinds of meaning in a naïve and charming way. This is a piece of literature and narrating tradition, puppet theatre and shadow play, the power of drama that will not be silenced by political and economic circumstances, fathers and sons, telling versus writing, finding your own language within an existing (narrative) tradition...  Using the simplest means, writer-artist Patrick Corillon manages to show and say it all.
Theatermaggezien - Ines Minten - 06/03/2010




Click on the photos to enlarge them

photos ©Kurt van der Elst