Franz Marijnen

Franz Marijnen at The Hague Opera, 1979

Franz Marijnen (4 April 1943 – 3 August 2022) was a Belgian theatre director. His early career, in the Netherlands and Belgium, was influenced by the work of the Polish theatre director and theorist Jerzy Grotowski. Marijnen then moved to the United States where he founded the experimental theatre company Camera Obscura. By the latter half of the 1970s, he was again working primarily in Europe. He served as artistic director of several large theatres in the Netherlands and Belgium, including the Ro Theatre in Rotterdam and the KVS in Brussels.

Life and career

Marijnen was born in Mechelen on 4 April 1943. He studied directing at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound (RITCS) in Brussels. Marijnen began directing for the Mechels Miniatuur Teater while a student at RITCS, and in 1966 directed a production of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story that received positive reviews.

In 1966, Marijnen met Polish theatre director and theorist Jerzy Grotowski at a workshop in Brussels. In 1967, Marijnen went to Poland for an internship at Grotowski's Laboratory Theatre in Opole. He was inspired by Grotowski's method, which focused on the actor's physical presence on the stage. Marijnen wrote and published a report about Grotowski's workshop in the theatre magazine Windroos. The report was later reprinted in Grotowski's 1968 book Towards a Poor Theatre.

Marijnen tried to apply Grotowski's method upon his return to Belgium, in 1969. He taught workshops at multiple Flemish and Dutch theatre companies, including the Nederlandse Komedie in Amsterdam, and found that classically trained actors were not open to the method.

In 1971, Marijnen moved to the United States, looking for a more receptive environment to teach and apply Grotowski's method. He had several teaching appointments while in the United States, including at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. In 1973, he founded his own theatre company, Camera Obscura, which was based in Jamestown, New York. He directed multiple productions at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City during the early 1970s, including Fernando Arrabal's Fando and Lis (1971), Camera Obscura in Andy Wolk's Oracles (1973), Camera Obscura in Wolk's adaptation of Comte de Lautreamont's Maldoror (1974), and Camera Obscura in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (1974). Camera Obscura went on tour in Europe in 1973, 1974, and 1975.

He returned to Europe in 1977 to become the first director of the Ro Theatre in Rotterdam. As a freelance director at other theatres, he produced large-scale productions such as Wasteland (Rotterdam, 1980) and Bataille Bataille (Groningen, 1992). He continued using Grotowski's method, and was one of the few directors who successfully produced large-scale productions that were experimental.

In 1993, Marijnen became the director of the KVS in Brussels where he produced classical pieces such as King Lear (1987) and Oedipus / In Kolonos (1994). He brought audiences from French-speaking Brussels and endeavoured to give Arab culture a place in the theatre. He resigned in 2000 after seven years as director, partially due to financial issues the theatre was experiencing.

He then joined the National Theatre in The Hague to direct productions such as Glenn Gould (2008) and Pier Paolo Pasolini – PPP (2010). Since 2012, he was directing in Mechelen at Arsenaal, the former Mechels Miniatuur Teater, where he started his career. In early 2014, he produced Scarlatti with an international cast.

Selected works

1966

The Zoo Story, Edward Albee – Mechels Miniatuur Teater

1968

Saved, Edward Bond – Mechels Miniature Teater

1970

Learn about Leather / Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare – Dutch Comedy

1973

Oracles, with Andy Wolk (after Sophocles' Oedipus) – Camera Obscura

Yerma, Federico García Lorca - Nederlands Toneel Gent (NTGent)

1975

Grimm! (collaborative project about the Brothers Grimm – Schauspielhaus Hamburg

1980

Wasteland (Simon Rozendaal Ensemble) – Ro Theater in collaboration with Werkcentrum Dans

De Meiden, Jean Genet – Ro Theater

1983

Aida, Giuseppe Verdi – Royal Ballet of Flanders, Antwerp Orchestra, and Flanders Opera

1984

Jules Verne, Rob Scholten and Marijnen – Ro Theater, Stichting Noordelijk Theater de Voorziening

Exit the King, Eugène Ionesco – NTGent

1985

I Jan Cremer, Lennaert Nijgh (after Jan Cremer) – Ro Theater

1987

Doktor Faust, libretto by Ferruccio Busoni – Dutch Opera Foundation

King Lear, William Shakespeare – NTGent

1988

Woyzeck, Georg Büchner – The National Theater

1989

Orgy, Pier Paolo Pasolini – The Southern Theater

1991

Endgame, Samuel Beckett – Royal Flemish Theater

1992

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett – The National Theater

Bataille / bataille, Georges Bataille – North Dutch Theater

1993

King Lear, William Shakespeare – Royal Flemish Theater

1994

Oedipus, Hugo Claus (to Seneca) – Royal Flemish Theater

In Kolonos, Hugo Claus (after Sophocles) – Royal Flemish Theater

1996

Oresteia, Aeschylus – Royal Flemish Theater

2000

Winter, Jon Fosse – The Arsenal

2008

Red Rubber Balls, Peter Verhelst – The National Theater

Glenn Gould, Marijnen – The National Theater

2010

Pier Paolo Pasolini – PPP, Marijnen – The National Theater

2011

The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill – The National Theater

2014

Scarlatti, Marijnen – The Arsenal

Further reading

• Jans, Erwin. Critical Theater Lexicon 18: Franz Marijnen. Brussels: Flemish Theater Institute, 2002.
• Crombez, Thomas. Arm theater in a golden age: Ritual and avant-garde after the Second World War. Leuven: Lannoo Campus, 2014.
• Tindemans, Klaas. "Flemish theater makers in the Netherlands: Franz Marijnen", Rekto: Verso , no. 43, September/October 2010.
• Marijnen, Franz. "Practical exercises for an actor's training according to the system and to the theories of Jerzy Grotowski". Wind rose , JG., no. 3, p. 25–27 (1967).
• Roeck, Jef the. "Franz Marijnen and his conditions", Ons Erfdeel , jg. 37 (1994).
• t'Arsenaal: who is who, Franz Marijnen. Accessed 9 December 2014.

External links

• Marijnen's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
• Franz Marijnen at IMDb
• Franz Marijnen on Oxford Reference (online)