Works and Days
★★★★☆ Evocative
Lyceum (EIF): Thurs 7 – Sun 10 Aug 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Works and Days, part of the International Festival at the Lyceum for four performances only, is an arresting depiction of human history.
The entirely wordless piece is from Antwerp-based FC Bergman and Toneelhuis, co-produced with Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
A scene from Works and Days. Pic: Kurt Van der Elst
The members of the FC Bergman collective – Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans, Thomas Verstraeten & Marie Vinck – have created the piece, being credited as ‘directors, dramaturgs and set designers’. They are joined on stage by Susan De Ceuster, Geert Goossens, Fumiyo Ikeda and Maryam Sserwamukoko.
It begins with an evocation of the rural landscape throughout the changing seasons. This starts with the striking sight of the stage literally being ploughed up, and proceeds through ritual (featuring a fair old amount of sex, death and nudity) into the industrial age.
Much of it has an exceptionally strong visual impact – the building of a house on stage, the arrival of a giant levitating steam engine, the stage exploding with pineapples. It is all carefully considered, often echoing famous paintings, fraught with symbolism, and gives the audience scope to apply their own interpretations.
highly atmospheric
On-stage music is supplied by Joachim Badenhorst & Sean Carpio. At first it consists of simple pipes and percussion, but later features clarinet and saxophone, electronics and sundry other instruments, including a bowed series of bells. Apparently the music is inspired by Vivaldi, but in texture it is more reminiscent of folk-inflected jazz, such as one of John Surman’s solo albums. Either way, it is highly atmospheric.
The lighting (by Aerts, Agemans and Ken Hioco) is similarly effective.
A scene from Works and Days. Pic: Kurt Van der Elst
There can be no doubting the power of much of this. The depiction of a society whose connection to the land they live on has been broken, the manner in which the collective has given way to the individual, the fact that exotic food now appears seemingly from nowhere – it is all thought-provoking and evoked with sympathy and flashes of humour.
Some scenes, such as when Ikeda, drenched by pouring rain, attempts to plough alone, only to discover that all the resulting crops are largely black dust, are likely to linger in the memory.
starts to pall
While the very open-ended nature of the material is certainly a strength, there are moments that are not so successful, and the emphasis on death and nudity starts to pall.
The early sequences feature the apparent slaughter of a live chicken. Reassuringly, the sleight-of-hand that shows this is not really happening is not exactly of Derren Brown proportions, but the whole episode will be unpalatable for many.
Similarly, the arrival of the steam engine leads to another outbreak of mass nudity that echoes the imagery traditionally used to sell high-value consumer goods, and comes close to simply being the thing it is apparently parodying.
The visual power of the piece, however, cannot be denied.
Running time: One hour and 15 minutes (no interval).
Lyceum Theatre, 30 Grindlay St, EH3 9AX. (EIF).
Thursday 7 – Sunday 10 August 2025.
Thurs – Sat: 7pm; Sun: 3pm..
Tickets and details: Book here with the EIF.
A scene from Works and Days. Pic: Kurt Van der Elst
ENDS
