I worked with Jan on the performance “Requiem for a metamorphosis”. It was right after I graduated at Academy of dramatic art in Zagreb, Croatia. It was my biggest dream to work with someone like Jan Fabre. As my dream came true, I was so proud and honored to have opportunity to learn from the greatest. The method he uses while creating with his “warriors” is something I gladly remember as my best artistic experience. Besides, working with Jan was very formative period of my career.
Nowadays, I’m about to defend my doctoral dissertation, which refers a lot on work and aesthetics of Jan Fabre.
Methods he uses are very unique, very liberating for every performer, and also without any boundaries, so is his theater! His performers are not hiding, they don’t represent anyone but themselfs, they’re not predicitable, they travel from extreme to extreme. With some citation of Meyerhold (Biomechanics) and Grotowski’s laboratory work, he tries to gain performer’s inner drive, urge, instinct parched from everyday life. Fabre admires performers who transforms themselves, who searches their owns limits, limits of their own nature. He pulls out the best from every performer, every dancer and actor in a very respectful way.
While working with Jan, I felt very secure, respected as an artist and loved as a human being.
Marinko Leš