Voordracht Tom Lanoye over ReinAard

Tom Lanoye has written many unforgettable and radically modern adaptations of classics: Goethe, Shakespeare, Sartre, Euripides... Now he is looking closer to home. From an early age he has been fascinated by Reynaert the fox, who mercilessly punishes his fellow animals because they think they are even smarter than he is. Although written in the Middle Ages, Van den vos Reynaerde is considered the first modern picaresque novel in Europe, a brilliantly rhymed and subversive animal epic. Reynaert himself, as a cultural icon, was unfortunately castrated over the centuries into a mischievous rascal and good seller of Reynaert beer and cakes. Lanoye wants to put an end to that travesty by returning to the spirit of the original. His ReinAard does not seek a home in the sugary Disney universe of Bambi or Nemo, but has more affinity with family gangs such as the Sopranos or the Peaky Blinders. Lanoyes ReinAard knows the temptation of power, status, money and violence all too well, he regularly gives in to it and enjoys it too. But at least he is honest enough not to deny it, as his hypocritical fellow animals do. He cheats and abuses them without mercy. But that is mainly their own just reward.

Tom Lanoye (1958) is one of our most widely read and acclaimed authors. He wrote bestsellers such as Sprakeloos, Ten oorlog, Het derde Huwelijk and De draaischijf. Much of his prose has been filmed, his plays have been shown at all major theatre festivals in Europe and his work has been translated into more than fifteen languages. He was the first person ever to be awarded the three largest oeuvre prizes in our language area: the Gouden Ganzenveer (2007), the Constantijn Huygens Prize (2013) and the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (2024).