And the second part.... (*exhausted smiley*)
Only when the Ang Lee movie came out in 2006 did Brokeback Mountain become well-known amongst a wide audience. Lee turned the short story by Annie Proulx into an integer and atypical Hollywood movie that caused quite a sensation. It is about two taciturn, macho cowboys who find love, not with their wives, but in each other's arms. It earned three Oscars. And a lot of publicity.
Actors Sieger Sloot (Jack) and Willem Schouten (Ennis) have taken up the challenge to use Proulx's language to make the love between Jack and Ennis believable. In his adaptation, Van Kan chose to divide all the lines over the two men. "In theatre you can travel through the hearts and minds of these two men. With the help of video images and music we shape their thoughts and feelings. Very different from the medium of film. In film an anecdote is depicted realistically. Obviously, in theatre we can shamelessly let go of that realism. Play with the wording. And see what happens then."
We only see the cowboys' wives in the video projections on wooden screens. Van Kan: "In the movie the roles of the wives are expanded and the children are also incorporated in it. That is an accent that Lee has chosen. I would rather put the emphasis on the inner world of those two. The self-censure that mainly Ennis is tormented by, that far-reaching homophobia within himself, that's fascinating. That's why Ennis is a tragic character. He is everything but rooted in himself. I want to show that.
Brokeback Mountain has another trump: music. "Jack and Ennis sing songs. For this, I went shopping in the short story by Annie Proulx and looked for sentences that work best. If you can't fix it, you've got to stand it. The final sentence of the story. That for me is the essence of the show. There are things in life that you cannot solve and that you have got to learn to live with.
Brokeback Mountain by De Wetten van Kepler. Premiere tonight in the Verkadefabriek in Den Bosch.
Volkskrant - 9th of February 2007