WHITE BOX JACKET
A poetic and impressionistic distortion of a true story, unraveling the dramatic journey of three North Pole Expedition scientists, blending it with a bizarre parallel tale of the life of a rediscovered camera and rolls of film that were buried in the Arctic ice for 33 years.
© Sabine Theunissen, Squatelier. All rights reserved.
SYNOPIS
Anne Charlier reimagines the dramatic journey of her fiancé Nils Strindberg, looking at the pictures he took during the famous 1897 Polarex Expedition in his role as the mission's photographer. Departing from Spitsbergen on July 11, mechanical engineer and pioneering Swedish balloonist S. A. Andrée, Strindberg and arctic explorer Knut Frænkel attempted the first balloon flight to the North Pole. They set off with great fanfare, observed by politicians and the international press. They never came back.
Written, Directed & Edited by Sabine Theunissen
Produced by Sabine Theunissen (Squatelier) & Laurie Cearley (THE OFFICE performing arts + film)
Co-produced by Sarah D’hanens (Cinnamon Entertainment)
Composer Catherine Graindorge
Choreography by Gregory Maqoma & Thulani Chauke
SABINE THEUNISSEN
The Belgian set designer and architect Sabine Theunissen has created some of the most original and bold stagings in the opera and theater world. Her longtime collaboration with William Kentridge as his primary designer has included everything from LULU and DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, to his productions of Dmitri Shostakovich’s THE NOSE and Alban Berg’s WOZZECK, and his large-scale work for non-traditional theater spaces THE HEAD & THE LOAD (Tate Modern).
Now, in her first project as a director, she turns her eye to an epic adventure that, in her telling, becomes a metaphoric comedy about memory and destiny; legacy and hubris in the face of nature. Teaming up with one of South Africa’s most prolific and prominent choreographers Gregory Maqoma, WHITE BOX JACKET will sit at the intersection of film, visual art and performance. It will unfold like the landscape it depicts.