The Things I Never Told You NL/ENGLISH
In the house on the corner of our street lived an old man.
I didn’t know his name. He didn’t know mine. The day before he died he left a cardboard box, containing his most treasured possessions, on my doorstep. Books, cd’s, cassettes and videotapes I’d never heard of. I wanted to learn more. I couldn’t. They were untraceable. The stuff didn’t seem to exist….
The Things I Never Told You is a show about half-truths and white lies, identity, medication and the things you leave behind.
‘‘If taken at his word, and accepted wholesale it’s a touching and quirky peering into illness, obsession and the desperate struggle to find meaning and survival through art. If not, then it’s a magical journey through the mind of one of the most fascinating experimental theatrical minds at the Edinburgh Fringe” (****, BritishTheatreGuide)
”As well as embracing the role of the unreliable narrator with gusto – exploring the lines between reality and imagination – Honnef also investigates the reliability of memory, the fragility of the human mind and other existential concerns in a surreal manner that is reminiscent of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Paul Auster.
It’s intriguing and provocative, as well as being slightly infuriating. Yet Honnef’s genial nature means that even if he is a compulsive liar – or, worse, completely off his rocker – he still comes across an altruistic sort at heart. Backed by this likeability, Honnef’s shaggy dog stories are a pleasant diversion that can be interpreted as nothing more than that, or a touching insight into mental illness and depression, or a metaphysical examination of the nature of human perception.” (TheWeeReview)
”Honnef is one of the most adept on the Fringe when it comes to the increasingly popular game of keeping the audience guessing. (….) This relentless game-playing is either thrillingly postmodern or deeply frustrating. However, the idea of a cache of books, albums and videos none of which seem ever to have existed takes a Borgesian grip on the imagination. As twist follows twist, one has to admit that even if it’s all a shaggy dog story, it’s a damn fine one.” (The Scotsman)