R.I.P. - Bits and Pieces

Music, theatre and image merge in R.I.P. – Bits and Pieces, a cinematic theatre production that continues where the album R.I.P. (2019) – for which Hans Dagelet composed eight tracks about death with musician/producer YAN (Wende, Spinvis) – left off. The album forms the starting point for the production, for which Dagelet and YAN once again created both music and composition.

In collaboration with scenographer/filmmaker Jan Boiten, images from Eye’s collection have been integrated into the production in full. These tell the story of the origins of life, of youth and innocence, of mature life, of decay and death, and finally of the life that transcends death.

Vulcanic eruptions

Hans Dagelet: “Jan Boiten and I chose short films from Eye’s Bits & Pieces collection that work well with music. Monochrome films from the 1900s through to 1945. Some crazy footage: parades, artistic swimming, crumbling glaciers, roadworkers laying bricks at an incredible speed, ants in single files, shopping crowds, surgery, animated footage of cigars popping into a cigar box and out again, mass fitness training events, volcanic eruptions, locomotives crashing into each other in test situations, beauty contests, slo-mo images of blossoming flowers and mushrooms, WWI trenches, bombed-out cities and much, much more. The beauty of shaky and scratched footage from the past works really well with the music of R.I.P.”

The images of transitoriness and death resonate strongly with his own awareness of mortality, Hans Dagelet has said. "Now, at the age of 80 and having been awarded the Blijvend Applaus Prijs, I see this project as my requiem – a swan song that brings together everything I do."

"This production doesn’t try to put across a message; just to allow beauty to be seen and heard. R.I.P. – Bits and Pieces is an ode to life and death – to this bizarre, cruel, but also wonderful existence. It’s art for art’s sake; a celebration of the temporary and the timeless."

YAN provides electronic accompaniment to the production, and virtuoso Laurens de Boer plays grand piano. Dagelet also provides vocals and trumpet. Final direction: Ester Apituley.