Biography
Jan Decorte is a Belgian theatre maker, actor and director. Born on 9 May 1950 in Wilrijk, he is the son of actors Marc Decorte and Jo Crab. He began working in the 1970s as an actor and theatre maker with the company Het Trojaanse Paard.
Decorte played the role of Sylvain Dielman in Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). In the same period he directed the feature films Pierre (1977) and Hedda Gabler (1978). He met his long-term collaborator and partner Sigrid Vinks in the early 1980s.
In 1981 Decorte directed Friedrich Hebbel’s Maria Magdalena for the Kaaitheater Festival. He became artistic leader of the company in 1982; it was later renamed Jan Decorte en Cie and then Bloet. His work centres on minimalist adaptations of classical texts.
