Grandpa Puss; or how God disappeared

"Nothing remains untouched in Lisaboa Houbrechts' new performance. Not the body, not the soul, not Bach's St John Passion. With Grandpa Puss, Houbrechts proves that she is not afraid to burn her fingers on icons."

"... in Grandpa Puss; or how God disappeared, the Flemish artist intertwines music and classical singing performed live, acting, dance and scenographic movements to generate a baroque universe capable of embracing the most antagonistic aspects of the human soul in a single movement."

"Lisaboa Houbrechts gives her excruciating story a theatrical form that could hardly be more visceral both aesthetically and physically. ...
The young director is the creator of intimate and spectacular images in the service of extreme experiences. ...
Among the various theatrical languages she employs, music plays a magnificent leading role."

"Grandpa Puss is not a piece to get cheerful about, but it is great as a production. ... Also, the talents of laGeste - the new name of les ballets C de la B and kabinet k -, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Froefroe all melt wonderfully together in this performance.
Special mention also goes to Boule Mpanya who, with a bell of a voice, as a spiritual force, can single-handedly counterbalance Flemish Catholicism and still provide a glimmer of hope in all the gloom."

"The synergy between acting, dance and singing is often impressive. ...
Houbrechts intertwines the aversion to faith with the intense need for spiritual meaning, in an intriguing theatrical narrative that dissects large structures of violence."

"Houbrechts manages to capture this family epic in a fluid, hybrid form with a dozen player-singers. This is, more than opera, musical theatre. Nervous theatrical dialogues devolve into dance and hushed visual poetry. The St John Passion (with the addition of the aria Erbarme dich) sounds lofty, thanks to Opera Vlaanderen's soloists and the imploring singer-dancer Boule Mpanya, but never bombastic, thanks to Philippe Thuriot's accordion and ominous keynote."

"It's a stage UFO, this masterful and twilight performance that denounces so bluntly, and over three generations, the way in which rape and moral harassment perpetrated by the Church have been able to destroy children and their family history. "

"Put in religious terms, Houbrechts shows a path to hope and love, and thus to something that, quite in the vein of J.S. Bach, may be called divine."

"She can handle the large space of the Ghent Opera with her impressive images. Yet she especially excels in scenes where the four children play important roles. They are all equally convincing and right. The punk Jules Dorné, for instance, is very touchingly sketched. In dealing with actors, then, lies Houbrechts' talent."

"The children in the performance act strongly. It must not always have been easy to imagine themselves in the role of a victim."

"It is a delicate, emotionally charged topic that Houbrechts skilfully integrates into a masterpiece of text, dance, music and live accordion."

"In the large number of issues and periods condensed into less than two hours, it is by pointing out the apparent contradiction between the ethics of forgiveness and the transmission of trauma that Lisaboa Houbrechts challenges our perspectives on such a vast and somewhat mined subject."

"Some scenes are breathtaking in their cruelty, their suppressed tragedy."

"The actors are all excellent, directed with great attention to detail, playing their characters with intelligence and subtlety, not turning them into absolute monsters, but both victims and executioners,..."

"The actors, both children and adults, are all excellent and deliver deeply moving performances."