Musical Daens Suite

Both “Daens”, the movie, and “Daens”, the musical, are based on the well-known book by Louis Paul Boon, who along with Hugo Claus is possibly the most important writer of post-war Flanders. Boon was a native of Aalst and a man of the people. In otherwords, he was no academic who produced his literature from an ivory tower. He was able, like no other, to keep his finger on the pulse of the common man. Boon’s writing is packed with true-to-life characters.Just as in most of his other books, forhis work about Father Daens, Louis Paul Boon took his beloved Aalst as a starting point for an epic story about justice and injustice, about life and death. He takes us back to the Aalst of 1900 and submerges us in the raw, hopeless life of theworking class. One man takes up the battle against the immense injustice of that period. That man is Father Daens.To a great extent, director Stijn Coninx remained faithful to Boon’s words when filming the book, although he concentrated more on themiserable life of the working class than on the movement the priest created known as “Daensism”. In an outstanding manner, he succeeded in bringing to life reality at the turn of the century.Desperate circumstances“Daens” the musical takes us back tothe Aalst of 1888. Following a conflict with Bishop Stillemans, Father Adolf Daens goes back to his hometown of Aalst. He moves in with his brother Pieter Daens, the publisher of the periodical “Het Land van Aalst”. The provincial town is also a newhome for country dwellers that have fled poverty. However, they have simply exchanged one set of dire circumstances for another, because as textile workers, they have to work 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. When the local industrialist Borremansfires half of his workforce, it is a source of yet more misery. Father Daens takes the suffering of the workers very personally. He makes the acquaintance of Nette Scholiers, who has only just turned 17, but is already the breadwinner for a wholefamily. Daens cannot look on helplessly and so he complains about the desperate circumstances in the textile factory in his brother’s paper. An action that does not win him the admiration of Charles Woeste, the leader of the Catholic Party and anally of Borremans.Own partyBefore long, Daens is summoned to appear before Bishop Stillemans. The latter forbids him to involve himself further with politics, and certainly when it concerns actions that risk damaging the interests of the CatholicParty. Father Daens ignores the Bishop’s words. More than that, Daens starts up his own political party, the Christene Volkspartij, or Christian People Party. Daens is able to count on the sympathy of liberals and socialists and is elected as amember of the Belgian parliament. There, Daens takes every opportunity to speak out on a regular basis and complain about the harrowing working and living conditions of the working class. Woeste and co. retaliate mercilessly. Via their friends in thechurch authorities, they force Daens to give up his priesthood. When his party threatens to gain power, the socialists and liberals also abandon him. Daens is finally vilified by church and state, but in his beloved Aalst, he continues to devotehimself to a better future for the working class, right up to his death in 1907.