Open air performances best suit our artistic qualities, as it allows us to play in a grand style – flamboyant and raw – to choose the height we play at, and to employ ingenious props. By playing on stilts, the show is visible to everyone in the crowd. Dynamic, extra-ordinary choreography, touchable nearness, and large rolling objects are other features of our shows. The crowd forms – as it were – a moving stage, so that the usual separation between audience and actors is lost. Surrounded by live music, spectators feel they become part of the story.
Theater Gajes started out as a street theatre duo in 1985. Today, it consists of 15 professional theatremakers, musicians, designers, and technical engineers. Their intensive cooperation leads to spectacular results.
In 2004, our first grand-scale theatre spectacle ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was warmly received at festivals in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and even Canada.
Gajes’ next large open-air production was ‘Don Quixote’, first performed in 2008 in cooperation with the ‘Deventer on Stilts Festival’, and ‘La Paperie’ from Angers. This eccentric adaptation of the famous novel surpasses ‘Alice’ in terms of size, poetic power, and impact.
Besides grand-scale productions, we also tour with two smaller-scale performances: the open air performance ‘Tuin der Lusten’ (Garden of Delights) and the walkabout act ‘Wanted’ .
Theater Gajes does not feel hampered by limitations set by language, culture, age or background. We prefer to play for organisations that do not charge admission fees, because we like to draw a motley crowd.
