Big Mouth

I went to see Big Mouth by Vanentijn Dhaenens on Sunday. It’s a one-man show.

Last week I went to a one-man show too. It was called Boom and it’s by Rick Miller.

But in spite of Mr. Miller being a charismatic performer who works his butt off, and in spite of its being staged by the company made famous by Robert Lepage, Ex Machina, I was bored to tears because I felt nothing during its performance.

During Big Mouth I could not stop crying. For me, it was theatrical perfection; it was pure, simple and extremely moving because of Mr. Dhaenens performance and sellf-direction.

The text of Big Mouth is a compilation of parts of speeches by Grand Inquisitor, Nicola sacco, Socrates, Goebbels/Paton, Pericles, King Baudouin (of Belgium), Lumumba (of Congo), Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther king, Malcom X, Muhammed Ali, John F. Kennedy, R. Regan, H.W. Bush, Louis Farakahan, Osama Bin Laden, F. van Hecke, George Bush and Ann Coulter.

There is also music. And it ends with a very moving spoken word performance of Nature Boy, a song written by Eden Ahbez and made famous by Nat King Cole. It’s a song that has always been a favourite of mine (I have a few Nat King Cole CDs and love them).

There was a boy


A very strange enchanted boy


They say he wandered very far, very far


Over land and sea


A little shy and sad of eye


But very wise was he

And then one day


A magic day he passed my way


And while we spoke of many things


Fools and kings


This he said to me


The greatest thing you'll ever learn


Is just to love and be loved in return

The greatest thing you'll ever learn


Is just to love and be loved in return

I was weeping all the way through it. I will never forget that show and the power of its pure, simple presentation. I was born with theatre in my genes. I started putting on plays when I was four and this play reminded made me proud of my passion.