abonneer

#183

08.09.2026

—

14.01.2027

Nieuwsbrief

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Marthe Koning – What Pessoa Taught Me
 / Louis Verlinde & Gina Beuk – BROKEBACK SHITSHOW

Within & Without

What Pessoa Taught Me and BROKEBACK SHITSHOW are part of the 2023 LAFS (Love at First Sight) theatre festival program. The festival takes place in Antwerp and focuses on the work of young theatre makers. At first sight, these two shows, both premiering at the festival, have little else in common. One is a one-woman show, brooding and minimalist in its setting; the other is a flamboyant Hollywood look-alike. However, despite being situated on different ends of the spectrum, they’re both pieces of reflection; Marthe Koning’s performance comes from deep within while Verlinde and Beuk focus on the outside, the shining veneer covering our society.

Ugnė Noreikė

review 02.11.2023

Once Upon a Time – Febe Coysman

Another Piece of My Heart

In the sunny months of summer, cinemas around Europe move outdoors, organizing open-air screenings and often giving a dusting to old classics in the fresh air. Once Upon a Time by Febe Coysman shows that not only screens can move outdoors, but their plots and props too can step out of screens. A street in Oostende is transformed into a theater stage with a car as its centerpiece. And so a Tarantino-inspired Thelma and Louise go on a fearful trip full of loathing, all the while centering female friendship.

Ugnė Noreikė

review 09.08.2023

Nieuwsbrief

EXÓTICA – Amanda Piña

A transpersonal and transcultural desire to dance together

EXÓTICA is a journey that sets off even before the show proper starts. In my rush through its arcades, the Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries become a zoetrope of chocolate shops, gift boutiques, and chic restaurants–a parade of taste tourism that mindlessly reiterates the colonial accumulation and display of riches. In that sense, the premiere of Chilean-Mexican-Austrian based artist Amanda Piña’s latest piece at the Théâtre Royal des Galeries feels site-responsive. EXÓTICA beckons its audiences to examine the productions and consumptions of coloniality as it manifests between the dancing and spectating bodies across ethnic and sexual asymmetries. I enter the foyer covered with red velvet and mirrors, with the soundscape of tropical forests layered beneath the noise of the crowd. I can’t resist the feeling of being moved by some tingle that our predicament has deprived us of more and more: Fascination.

Eylül Fidan Akıncı

review 06.06.2023

A dramaturgy of desire

What is the transformative potential of party performances?

Since venues reopened after the – hopefully – last lockdown, going to the theatre has become, more than ever, a festive event. Theatre makers are increasingly staging party scenes or working with music and choreography; sometimes theatre halls even transform into clubs, and queerness takes centre stage. Offstage, too, festivals and theatre houses are now regularly using parties to seduce a (new) audience. “About last night”, Kristof van Baarle asks himself: what does this trend have to offer to the theatre?

Kristof van Baarle

essay 27.04.2023

FLY – Sidney Leoni

An imaginary trip with the god of dance

While he was often called ‘le dieu de la danse,’ Vaslav Nijinsky was a god who fell hard from his towering cloud. In the early twentieth century, Nijinsky became a star dancer (and eventually a choreographer too) with the pioneering Ballets Russes in Paris, led by Sergei Diaghilev. His career there was as short as it was legendary. The story of that steep climb and downward fall is compellingly evoked in ‘FLY’, the new performance by choreographer, dancer, and filmmaker Sidney Leoni.

Timmy De Laet

review 18.04.2023