Gus Van Sant

With films such as »My Own Private Idaho« and »Milk«, Gus Van Sant is considered a protagonist of New Queer Cinema, exploring the emotional worlds of closeted characters with a sensitive eye TROUBLE is his first play written and directed. In a fictional narrative, it deals with the beginnings of Pop Art icon Andy Warhol and the radical upheavals of the 1960s, and shows how the young, gay Catholic developed his fluid identity as a Pop artist – while remaining elusive as a myth to this day. Van Sant adopts the same curiously impartial observer position toward the theater with which Warhol approached art and filmed people with his camera. With a musical (composed by himself), Van Sant also chooses an art form known for its superficial popularity. And finally, he implements Warhol’s prophecy that in the future all young people will be famous and play roles. On stage, nine actors in their 20s from Portugal perform captivating dialogues and songs. The simplicity of Van Sant’s staging puts the focus on the text and gives the actors the freedom to unfold with unwavering enthusiasm. The result is a dense, atmospheric portrait of an artist whose ideas about multiplying images and screens anticipated social media and image production today.