Anna Franziska

Jäger &

Nathan Ooms / CAMPO

Modesta (play of language and lips), based on Goliarda Sapienza's controversial novel The Art of Joy, is an ode to the chaos and the joyful loss of coming of age.

In this ‘play of language and lips’, five performers go in search of Modesta, the main character in The Art of Joy. Who is she? A fantasy. A young girl who grows up learning how to turn pain into pleasure. A woman who twists the rules of language and social convention. A sphinx-like character, mysterious because we cannot grasp the source of her vitality. Modesta appears in many guises, in word and movement, asking us to follow her. 

Anna Franziska Jäger and Nathan Ooms work from a preference for non-theatrical text material and a distinctly physical approach to acting. Set to music by Lander Gyselinck, Jäger and Ooms depict humans preferring vitality, willpower and joy to cynicism, social conventions and restrictive morality.