UCLA Performing Arts In a solo piece called "Voices,"
Jeroen Willems plays five different characters who
discuss the faces of power at UCLA’s Macgowan Little Theater.
By Nick Rabinowitsh
Daily Bruin Contributor
Five powerful people sit at a dinner table, the remains of a
banquet in front of them, discussing their very different
worlds.
Sound a bit underwhelming as a piece of theater?
Well, it shouldn’t. The entire “Voices” show
is performed by only a single actor, Jeroen Willems. The play is an
intricate juggling act with Willems playing five people, each with
his (and her) own very different perspective and identity.
Willems simultaneously plays an intellectual, a cleric, a
businessman, his lover, and even the Shell International Board
Director. These characters trade perspectives with each other as
part of the same conversation.
The task of performing as five different characters in the same
scene would seem to be daunting, but to Willems, it is simply what
he does.Â
“It’s fun to do all those different characters,
“Willems said during a phone interview. “For an actor,
it’s a party. I have an understanding with the audience that,
okay, now I’m going to the next character. I’m
transforming now to the other one and here we are, do you believe
it or not?”
Willems hails from Maastricht, Holland, where he graduated from
theater school in 1987. Since then, he has performed in many
productions, such as “Lulu” (1995),
“Persians” (1996), and “The Fall of the
Gods” (1999). He began performing “Voices”
in 1997, which has since won worldwide acclaim ““ including
the 1997 Grand Prix of the Theater festival. It also was awarded
the first prize at the 4th Festival Politik in Freien Theater in
Stuttgart, Germany, among others. Willems himself won the Nowosci
prize for Best Actor.
Willems has been performing “Voices” for four years
now, long enough that he admits the production has become a part of
him.
“I sometimes find myself combining several
characters,” Willems said. “After doing it for four
years, I have to force myself to realize that people are hearing it
for the first time.”
But for him, there is more to the performance than just
repetition.
“I feel the characters are still growing, and find more
depth,” he said.
His passion for the message of the play is still as strong as
ever. The main theme of the play is corporate evil, and especially
the way multinational corporations fail to take responsibility for
their actions. According to “Voices,” the truly
powerful people are those who control the business world, and the
apparent lawlessness of this world leaves tycoons immune to social
justice.
“It’s about power, about that topic that most of us
don’t want to go into, maybe because we don’t want to
know,” he said. “What makes (the play) successful
everywhere is that everybody recognizes the problem and recognizes
the questions which are being asked.”
Although the subject matter of the play sounds a bit heavy,
Willems assures that humor is also a key element to the
performance.
“It’s done in a very funny way. I think there is a
lot of humor in it, because for me humor is the only way to handle
the topic,” Willems said. “If I see something onstage
with a heavy topic, I can get into it best if it is told with
humor, too.”
Willems also emphasized that the message continues to be
relevant to college students today, especially those who have
included the study of corporate power in their curriculum.
“I really hope (UCLA students) all come and I think it
still has such an actual theme,” he said. “I’d be
interested to see if they think so too.”
THEATER: “Voices” is playing today
through Sunday, Feb. 3 at UCLA’s Macgowan Little Theater at
8:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the UCLA Central Ticket
Office. For more information call (310) 825-2101.