KASK Drama

"All trans/it long" is an internal transformation that erupts from a festive improvisation. The shared moment stems from a transmission of "Commonstro".

Credits:

• Conception: Milø Slayers
• Performers: Fatou Kâ, Manon Van Ranst, Lena Van Speybrouck, Sainabou Johm and Aniesha Akoua N. Tchimou
• Special thanks: Yasen Vasilev, Anastasia Antoniadi, Chiheb Slaoui, Kim Ramiandrisoa
• Supported by: Stad Gent

“Als God niet bestaat, blijft toch altijd de vraag bestaan wie dan wél het menselijke bedrijf bestiert, alsmede de gehele op deze aarde bestaande orde.”

When Woland and his grotesque entourage, including a giant talking cat and an eccentric witch, descend on atheistic 1930s Moscow, the city is turned upside down. While Moscow's literary elite panics, a story unfolds that transcends the boundaries of time, reality and humanity.

The Master is imprisoned for his novel about Pontius Pilate, and his beloved does everything in her power to save him and his novel.

Pontius Pilate and Jesus meet before Jesus' execution. Will Pilate intervene, and how long will his conscience haunt him?

In The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov presents an eclectic parade of characters who reject all authority and all forms of control, especially that of reason. Dialogues from The Master and Margarita is an adaptation and selection from Bulgakov's novel, directed by Timeau De Keyser and Hans Mortelmans in collaboration with third-year students from KASK Drama.

As has become customary¹ : buckle up, pour yourself a good glass of vodka, bring your Communist Manifesto and your Bible, sit back and enjoy this magical, biblical, Russian adventure.

Dutch spoken.

Credits

• Cast: Mathisse De Sutter, Lotus Friede, Winand Keymis, Anouk Lacroix, Bjarne Liveyns, Giel Luyten, Mina Maréchal, Anton Rys, Pepijn Vermeulen and Frieda Vranken
• Coaching/Direction: Timeau De Keyser and Hans Mortelmans
• Text: The Master and Margarita (1940), Mikhail Bulgakov, translated to Dutch by Marko Fondse and Aai Prins, selected and adapted by Timeau De Keyser and Hans Mortelmans
• Poster image: Bjarne Liveyns
• Image of tram: Van den Bossche, P. 2011, Gent tram to Moscou
• Thanks to: KASK Drama, Minard, Simon De Winne, Bardia Mohammad

¹ See De Kersentuin

During the Drama Festival, drama master’s students present their graduation work. Offbeat and classical drama, crossovers, performances and multidisciplinary work can be seen at de Kazematten, CAMPO, Minard and Arsenaalsite. The Drama Festival runs from 14 to 21 June 2025.

With ik denk dat het ouder heet, collectief modderspot (Mira Cole, Winter De Cock, Robbe Embrechts, Hanna Mensink & Seppe Somers) presents a theatre performance about parenthood.

In this youth performance (10+), the group creates an absurd world in which five characters try to build the ‘ideal’ parent together. By playing out different scenarios and ideas, they discover what they really expect from a parent – and whether the perfect parent actually exists.

In an ever-changing scenography, the characters re-enact memories they long for. They seek parental intimacy with each other. They give shape to each other's wishes and losses. Gradually, they discover how they themselves have become parents – for themselves, for each other, even for their own parents. They fill the void, see how it constantly reforms, and find parenthood in unexpected things: in the light, the wind, the cracks in the sofa, the dust swirling up from the vacuum cleaner.

With this performance, we want to offer a safety net. A place for thoughts, a touch, comfort and a laugh – for everyone who is growing up or has grown up without a parent figure.

Credits:

• makers & players: Mira Cole, Winter De Cock, Robbe Embrechts, Hanna Mensink, Seppe Somers
• guidance: Jan Steen, Freek Vielen, Gina Beuk
• lighting design and technics: Ramses Mensink
• scenography: Elena De Lie
• poster: Stella Brouwers
• image: Alies Torfs
• thanks to: Sumalin Gijsbrechts, Kristof Van Baarle, Bardia Mohammad, Frederik Le Roy, Madonna Lenaerts, Simon De Winne, kunstencentrum CAMPO, hetpaleis.
  

In BOTOX (NO EMOTIONS), actors reveal their deepest vulnerability — or are they just really good at acting? Sadness is carefully staged and chewed over, authentic acting is stripped down to the bone. There is laughter, sometimes intentional, sometimes because someone stumbles over an emotional metaphor in the form of a wooden stool. You watch, you cry, you wonder if you should even be here, you google ‘can I leave a performance art piece while it's still dark?

What happens to the sincerity of emotions when they are observed? It is a search for what is real, and whether we can ever fully reveal it.

Credits

• by and with: Lander Merckx, Melanie Barelds, Noa Van Dongen, Domien Huybrechts, Tist De Maeyer
• image: Emma Ostyn
• thanks to: Bauke Lievens, Simon De Winne, Madonna Lenaert, Mieja Hollevoet, Carolina Maciel de França, Bardia Mohammad, Flore van den Eynde, onze klas.

MEET THE ARTISTS

Katarzyna Kozyra (1992), a blond and provocative multidisciplinary artist known for her raw and challenging portrayal of marginalized bodies. She believes in giving a voice to the silenced, using her art to amplify those often overlooked. Born in Poland, raised in Amsterdam, and discovering her Jewish roots later in life, she embodies a complex, multifaceted cultural identity that fuels her fearless and electrifying art.

Banasha Suleimankheil (1993), a feminist performance artist in exile. Born in Afghanistan but raised in the Netherlands, she grapples with a profound identity crisis. Her art can be described as self-referential, as it solely exposes her personal experience of female suffering. She confronts the male gaze by presenting her body on her own terms, transforming her vagina into both a weapon and a canvas.

In the major retrospective exhibition “My Nemesis”, Katarzyna Kozyra dives into the relationship with her best friend and life-long enemy Banasha Suleimankheil. She looks back at this turbulent but very meaningful friendship to portray a decade of exchange between two strong-willed women trapped in a female artist’s body. Their lives were a constant competition but also the driving force behind their oeuvre. Who was the most traumatised artist? The most fuckable? The true feminist activist? With a hunger for success bordering on madness they exploited their beauty, sexuality, ethnicity, traumas, and just like Barbara Kruger, turned their bodies into a battleground.

Content warning: verbal violence, sexual violence, bodily abjections and suicide.

Credits

• Van & met: Manizja Kouhestani en Fiene Zasada
• Eindregie: Abigail Gypens
• Scenografie: Emma Onghena
• Muziek: Jan de Tremerie
• Mentoren: Luanda Casella & Frederik Le Roy
• Affiche: Lars Duchateau
• Met dank aan: Martha Balthazar, Bardia Mohammad, Simon de Winne, Jan Steen, Astrid Vansteenkiste , KASK DRAMA, CAMPO Victoria, LaGeste, De Kazematten, kunstencentrum BUDA, Minard, NTGent.

In Entre-deux, Roos and Cyrille take you on an honest, raw and sometimes painfully recognisable journey. A journey through their relationship, their doubts, their desires. They put themselves and each other under a magnifying glass.

Amidst the ruins of what once was, they search for what could still be. They speak as lovers, as strangers, as players in each other's lives. They take on the roles of friend, actress, director, mother, doctor, lovers, victor, student. Each identity slides over the other like a layer, until it is no longer clear where play ends and truth begins. In a landscape of roles and masks, they try to find each other again. With nothing but words, silences and the courage to expose themselves.

Entre-deux is not a linear story. It is a compilation of monologues and dialogues from existing plays, including Neoptolemos by Koos Terpstra, Scenes from a Marriage by Ingmar Bergman, and films such as Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach and Persona by Ingmar Bergman. 

It is an attempt. A search. For each other. For themselves. For connection. For a place where they can start over – or perhaps just let go. About the elusive nature of human relationships, about everything that needs to be said – and what is perhaps better left unsaid. About what it means to be together.

‘I understand, I understand why you're silent...’ – a sentence that lingers in the air, just like the silence between two people who want to say everything but don't know how.

Entre-deux – Between what was and what could still be.

Credits

• By and with: Roos De Graeve & Cyrille Ribel
• Image: Helena Bruynooghe
• With thanks to: Simon De Winne, Bauke Lievens, Mieja Hollevoet, Carolina Maciel de França, Madonna Lenaert, Bardia Mohammad.
  

RETROGRADE returns to the place where the image of femininity was born and discovers that it is mud, not a rib. From here, the search begins for what the word femininity carries within it and how it resonates in our own bodies. In search of roots, three players dig into texts from long ago where male voices form female bodies. They allow themselves to be flooded by advertising images and pop songs while trying to peel away the layers of illusion. What makes them identify as women? How do Shakespeare and Britney Spears influence their womanhood? What if Salome dances only for herself? The space reflects their search and invites the audience to compose their own story. 

Credits

• by and with: Lena Dirckx, Mischa Pakravesh and Marte Lambaerts
• performing work: Lena Dirckx; Mischa Pakravesh and Marte Lambaerts
• sound: Mischa Pakravesh
• texts by Shakespeare, Euripides, Maeterlinck, Oscar Wilde, Lena Dirckx and Marte Lambaerts
• poster: Marte Lambaerts with image by Helena Bruynooghe
• costumes: Marte Lambaerts and her grandmother
• with thanks to: Bardia Mohammad, Bauke Lievens, Mieja Hollevoet, Simon De Winne, Carolina Maciel de França, Liene Aerts, Thomas Peeters and Bérengère Bodin

Drs. Apparatus occult scientist, 
summons you mortals to his demonstration 
to scrutinize and dissect his mutation of narration
He’s been building a machine 
that operates as a portal to the inbetween. 
While investigating how to activate the Machine it becomes clear 
that mystical truth is hidden underneath layers of fear. 
Trying to figure out how to wield his subordinate powers 
Drs. Apparatus struggles severely, is lost for days and hours. 
Maintaining a work life-balance with a dysfunctional family, 
who never asked to take part in this inexplicable scenery.  

Credits

• Play:  Evert Van Ransbeeck, Julian Dewaele, Michelle Van Neste, Felix Braeckman &  Tembi De Koninck
• Direction: Felix Braeckman 
• Music: Côme Lenseigne & Yunas De Proost 
• Scenography: Marianne Van Caekenberghe & Charlotte daniëlse
• Costume: Marianne Van Caekenberghe & Felix Braeckman
• With guidance by: Paola Bartoletti & Kristof Van Baarle
• poster: Nathaniel Ortiz
• Special thanks: Paola Bartoletti, De Veerman, Anker, CC Meulestede, Bardia Mohammad, Simon De Winne, Minard, Pieter Van Dijck 

En dan plots -das een vree rare fase- kan niet zeggen wanneer, het overkomt u gewoon ge zult het wel voelen als het daar is dan vragen ze “Wat wil jij later worden?" Euh idc ik ben al iets waarom moet ik nu nog iets worden? En dan vragen ze ‘wat zijn u toekomstplannen?’ Euh idc ontbijten, dat is mijn toekomstplan en of dat nu nen boterham met choco is of nen pot cornflakes met melk ja dat zien we dan wel.

Door toevallige ontmoetingen ontspinnen zich zowel humoristische als kwetsbare gesprekken, waarin personages geconfronteerd worden met de onvermijdelijke overgang naar een volgende levensfase. Thema’s zoals opgroeien, innerlijke verlangens en maatschappelijke verwachtingen staan centraal. 'Lost and Found and lost again' wilt een herkenbare en meeslepende ervaring creëren voor zowel jongeren als volwassenen, en wilt reflecteren op de universele zoektocht naar identiteit en verandering.

• By and with: Luna Janssen, Robbe Meere, Tuur Verelst and Elise Vervaeke
• Technician: Bardia Mohammad
• Acting coaching: Lucie Plasschaert
• Teaser, trailer and recording: Elias Dieusaert, Dries Marshall
• Made possible with the support of: Arsenaalsite, NTGent, Minard, KASK DRAMA and Luca Drama
• With special thanks to: Kristof van Baarle, Timeau De Keyser, Tom Meere, Miro Lievens, Milan Mitera, Cyrille Bernard Ribel, Katrien Valckenaers, Frederik Le Roy
  

Accesibility

Arsenaal site is close to a tram stop. The audience sits under a canopy.

There are three sisters who together determine fate: the Moirae. Together, the Moirae weave and control the fate of both people and gods, and no one can influence or change their decisions. 

In Amor Fatigue, Luna De Boos, Miro Lievens and Nathan Isahakyan explore three characters who each walk their own path. They struggle with that which should connect us all. Going back to stories from the past, they each share their desires, pain and happiness. What is at stake in the encounter between these characters?

Le désir est une passion qui regarde l’avenir 

• René Descartes

• mentors: Louis Janssens en Jan Steen 
• thanks to: Louis Janssens, Jan Steen, Bauke Lievens, Simon De Winne, Bardia Mohammad, Helena Bruynooghe en Kristof Van Baarle 
• photography: Helena Bruynooghe

Stop met je moeder de schuld te geven.

We zijn allemaal eenzaam.

We worden alleen geboren en we zullen alleen sterven.

Maar wat als dit niet zo is? Wat als deze ideeën ons ervan weerhouden om radicale intimiteit op te zoeken?

In AUTUMN RUPTURE zien we twee figuren die zich naast elkaar verhouden tot hun eenzaamheid. In een verwarrende wervelwind van gedachten, gesprek en emoties bewegen ze door een landschap van verschillende kamers.

Onderweg stuiten ze op vastgeroeste ideeën en verlangens; en de vraag hoe deze vorm te geven. Wie weet waarom we willen wat we willen?
En wat als de taal ontoereikend is? Wanneer neemt het lichaam het over?

De eenzaamheid is hier als een ommuurde tuin die kan overwoekeren; waarin ook het onkruid een waarde heeft, en waar verzorging en aandacht van belang is.

Een plek waar de tijd van gevoelens nooit eeuwig duurt, maar net als de seizoenen van gedaante wisselt.
En degene die het verhaal verzint, verzint de wereld.
Dus verwelkom altijd iemand in het huis van je eenzaamheid.

without darkness

nothing comes to birth

as without light

nothing flowers

• Maureen Murdock

Credits

• By and with: Ella Boomsma and Leila Benchorf
• Music: Kiki Abels
• Outside eye: Maria de Cort
• Dramaturgy: Jonas Istace
• Scenography: Lars Uten
• Mentors: Khadija El Kharraz Alami & Timeau de Keyser
• Image: Hooman Jeddy & Maria de Cort
• Thanks to: Bardia Mohammad, Simon De Winne, Maryam Sserwamukoko, Rinus Martha Chaerle, Gudrun Moreau, Frederik Le Roy, Carolina Maciel de França, Bauke Lievens, Emma Verstraete, KASK DRAMA, LOD, CAMPO Victoria, LaGeste, De Kazematten, Yelena Schmitz, Kunsthumaniora Brussel
• Based on texts by: Ali Smith, Olivia Laing, Sheila Heti, Virginie Despentes, Rebecca Solnit, Katherine Angel, Susan Sontag, Maureen Murdock, Miranda July, Big&Little Edie Beale

Vera and Michael have just renovated their house. To celebrate, they invite their good friend Ferdinand. Proudly, they show him their new interior full of objects that stagger between design and complete nonsense: from an antique Turkish scimitar, to an electric almond peeler.

Vera and Michael are keeping up with the latest trends, their son is doing great at school, their sex life is more exciting than ever.

But they worry about their friend, Ferdinand. He is a writer, but barely publishes. He works in a brewery, does not have an exclusive record collection and does not want children. What begins as a seemingly convivial evening soon degenerates into the couple's desperate search for confirmation of their existence. But in that search, they are mercilessly confronted with the emptiness of their material and bourgeois lives.

HOUSEWARMING is a timeless satire about a couple having a conversation that is not really a conversation at all. We see the dissection of two deeply unhappy people weighed down by the stifling expectations society imposes on them.

A couple who build an identity based on what they own, what they experience, what they wear... But what is such an identity worth if you have no one to prove it all?

For HOUSEWARMING, Kes Bakker, Anna De Graeve and Toon Acke start from Václav Havel's 1975 one-act Vernisáž (EN: ‘The Vernissage’). Triggered by the contemporaneity of the themes and ideas in Havel's critical, humorous work, they add new, self-written texts to the original. By stepping into the shoes of an older generation, the young makers ask themselves whether they themselves want children. Whether they themselves want to be caught up in that bourgeoisie. We see an older generation struggling with who they have become and young makers struggling with who they want to become.

• Based on: Vernisáž (En: The Vernissage) by Václav Havel
• Language: Dutch
• Concept, acting and text adaptation: Anna De Graeve, Kes Bakker and Toon Acke
• Coaching: Willem De Wolf
• Business and dramaturgic advice: Benoît Vanraes
• Theoretical and dramaturgic advice: Kristof Van Baarle
• Scenographic advice: Gilles Polak
• In collaboration with NTGent and KASK & Conservatorium
• With thanks to Matterhorn VZW, de Roovers, tg STAN, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet, Frederik Le Roy, Arsenaal/Lazarus, LaGeste, Capture Management.

MODDER SPEAK TO ME follows three characters who are charged by a large company with an impossible task: saving the world while the oxygen slowly disappears. While the world above them changes irrevocably, they become increasingly entangled in their research and conversations, in which the boundaries between experiment, thought and dream begin to blur. Their grief, discoveries and mutual relationships become inextricably intertwined. MODDER SPEAK TO ME is a narrative that plays with images, the joy of acting and transformation. A story in which people, the planet and technology become interwoven in a search for breathing space.

• Actors & Directors: Maryam Sserwamukoko, Titus Smessaert & Tijmen Van Damme
• Scenography: Kobe Ipers
• Lighting Design: Tijmen Van Damme, Maryam Sserwamukoko & Titus Smessaert
• Costumes: Maryam Sserwamukoko, Titus Smessaert & Tijmen Van Damme
• Accompaniment: Lua Casella & Khadija El Kharraz Alami
• Image: Maryam Sserwamukoko, Titus Smessaert & Tijmen Van Damme
• With thanks to: R7, Anker, VRT

[Attention! The dates of this event have been postponed to 9, 10 and 11 april 2025]

Is there actually called a place called ‘Echo Beach’?

‘Doesn’t exist to my knowledge.
It’s quite a fiction really, it’sjust a state of mind
The song deals with a state of mind, … you tend to go back to a place that has been quite enjoyable…’

• Mark Gane

Thanks to Kris Verdonck, Kristof van Baarle, Bauke Lievens, Khadija El Kharraz Alami, Emma Verstraete, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet

O dierbaar België

O heilig land der vaad’ren

Als ge naar hier komt, moete uw polle durve vuilmaken. En hard werken.

Olaaa, como estas?
Where you from?

Flanders.

Mag dat een beetje meer zijn?

wiJ hEbBen tRaDiTIeS mAar diE ziJN zO PrOBlEMatiScH

What about you?
Alles is duurder geworden. Ge moet den dag van vandaag voor ALLES betalen, en veel.
Belgium?

Aaaah Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne!

Voor mij ne berepoot, da mag gekruid zijn, en ne curryworst special.

Vous parlez français?
J’aime j’aime la vie.
Nederlands?

Nee zoo bedoel ik het niet, begrijp me niet verkeerd, ik ben niet racistisch.

Deutsch? Nein.

Wat een cultuur hebben jullie zeg.
Wij kennen er te weinig over.

Belgium people, good people, very calm people. I like.

• Concept, text & play: Armin Mola
• Mentors: Jan Steen & Wannes Gyselinck
• Dramaturgy: Alia Rifai
• Costumes: Rida Habib Allah
• Artistic guidance: Thomas Bellinck
• With thanks to: Alia Rifai, Thomas Bellinck, Mokhallad Rasem, …

45 jaar vakmanschap van Marc Vanrunxt in 1 performance: een lentedrama.

In Kinesferen: een lentedrama kruipen vijf spelers in een dansersrol. Ze onderzoeken hoe ze het lichaam en de ruimte kunnen benaderen als landschap. Waar stopt hun lichaam en waar begint de ruimte?

Het had een andere voorstelling kunnen zijn, met een andere titel, op een ander moment, met andere spelers, in een andere ruimte.

De voorstelling heet Dance Dance Dance, Otherwise We Are Lost: een ode aan Pina B., want haar geest is er altijd bij.

De voorstelling heet Wuthering Heights: we dansen in een rode jurk en een lange pruik als Kate Bush.

De voorstelling heet Vanrunxt Manifesto: een solo van Marc Vanrunxt over Marc Vanrunxt.

De voorstelling heet Laban Deluxe: we doen 24 uur lang de Laban onder het mom van duur.

De voorstelling heet The Dead Can Dance: we laten ons inspireren op het schilderij ‘Die Toteninsel’ van Böcklin.

De voorstelling heet Ik Haat Beethoven: we dansen de volledige 7e symphonie.

Dat hebben we al gedaan. Je had erbij moeten zijn. De climax is voorbij.

De voorstelling heet Kinesferen: een lentedrama.

De dansers zijn Melanie Barelds, Luna De Boos, Roos De Graeve, Tist De Maeyer en Domien Huybrechts.

De begeleider is Marc Vanrunxt.

Dat hebben we nog niet gedaan.

Jij kan erbij zijn.

• Dancers: Melanie Barelds, Luna De Boos, Roos De Graeve, Tist De Maeyer and Domien Huybrechts
• Guidance: Marc Vanrunxt
• Image: Emma Ostyn

Do not be sad because it is winter. Please bring warm clothes and maybe even a blanket. The church where we work, study, and read is not heated. We have been located here for the past six weeks – the Groot Begijnhof Sint-Elisabeth.

This site was formerly owned by the Begijnen of Gent. A group of lay Medieval women who practiced spirituality and collective living on their terms. We remember them as a proto-feminist project. We remember them for their radical forms of organization: running elections, offering a space where women of mixed social classes could live alongside one another, writing mystical literature to elaborate their experiences and teach. We remember that 600 women once lived here.

They were unacknowledged by the church and so we, too, have chosen to work beyond the walls of the school. Love makes me wander outside myself. Their subject, which we hold ourselves to, is love, mysticism, collectivity, and self-organization.

Hadewijch–-our starting point, our title, our mentor, our conversation partner–-was one of the first poets published in Middle Dutch. Little is known of her life beyond a collection of writings that consists of 14 recounted visions, 31 letters to young begijnen, 45 poems in stanzas to be sung aloud, 14 poems in couplets, and a list of perfects which are clad as love. Which no alien can understand. Which she invites us to share. She wrote about union with the divine.

In the hollows of the church, voice surfaces, distorts, rings, and resonates – all to most information must surrender to the sonic body of the space. Theater, as we learned it, is at a loss. We focus on song. Yet for some reason a whisper, the texture of gossip, is still possible. A body, be it inner, outer, or extended is at stake. The poem is flooded by a poetics of echo. Resonance is also a question of history. Are you not all deeply touched?

Beware, we privilege visions over ideas, process over product, conversation over conclusion, and, in the spirit of Hadewijch, Love over all.

Beware, lasers are present in the performance.

Since Love’s arrow first inwardly shot me.

We warmly welcome you into the cold.

When March begins, we see…

• Performers, Writers and Makers: Cyrille Bernard Ribel, Lena Dirckx, Noa Van Dongen, Bryana Fritz, Marte Lambaerts, Lander Merckx, Mischa Pakravesh, Sulo Rahman, Jasmine-Nazaré Sedrati-Lopes, Elsi Sloan
• Costume Designer: Dorien De Kesel
• Costume Assistant: Rowan Boeijen
• Source material: Hadewijch 
• Supervision: Bryana Fritz
  

Paris is over. Lyubov Andreyevna returns to her cherry orchard after five years. There she finds the remnants of the artistocracy of the 20th century. The cherry orchard, once a thriving business, is about to be sold, but they are not concerned with that. They go out to dinner, throw parties and just serve the staff beans. Third-year drama students from KASK & Conservatorium, together with Atta Nasser, explore how to relate to repertoire. They delve into the colourful characters Tjechov presented to them 120 years ago, finding characters talking past each other, the denial of reality and an inescapable fate.

Credits

• Players: Melanie Barelds, Luna De Boos, Roos De Graeve, Tist De Maeyer, Lena Dirckx, Domien Huybrechts, Marte Lambaerts, Anaïs Maes, Lander Merckx, Mischa Pakravesh, Noa van Dongen
• Guidance: Atta Nasser, Kristof van Baarle
• Text: Anton Tsjechov

S. is een linkse trut, een Becky, een lief DeMorgen-meisje. Ze drinkt haar koffie met havermelk en koopt alleen haar ondergoed nieuw. En ze houdt van daten. “Blijf swipen, zo leren we je smaak kennen!” Maar wat als je rechts per ongeluk niet naar links swipet, maar naar rechts? Swipet rechts, links altijd naar links? Soms is links en rechts toch een match, en S. ontmoet A., B., en C.

Ik wil je zo hard doen wanneer we niet overeenkomen.
Wil je in mijn mond spugen?

Je hebt gelijk dat je me naar rechts hebt geswiped.

Je hebt gelijk dat ik soms een beetje fel ben.

Je kent me eigenlijk al door en door.

Daarom mis ik je ook zo hard.

S. had een date burn-out en besloot haar leven te beteren en de wereld te depolariseren. Ze is namelijk een heel goed mens. Ze nam veertien interviews af, kwam kletsen op de zetel bij ‘de rechtse man’ in zijn vele soorten en maten: van vissers tot politici tot mariniers. Ze ontdekte dat vrouwen soms ook rechts zijn (zij vonden de Barbie film wel goed gelukt). Ze dronk thee met politieke Romeo en Julia’s in Nederland en België en sprak over hartzeer met gepolariseerde exen. En ze sprak ook zichzelf.

"Twee geloven op een kussen, daar slaapt de duivel tussen. En wie zegt dat ik een kussen wil delen? Ik wil mijn eigen fucking kussen."

CREDITS

• play, concept & text: Sophie Anna Veelenturf
• mentors: Kristien De Proost & Thomas Bellinck
• direction: Doris de Vries
• musical & comical coaching: Valentina Tóth
• dramaturgy: Remi Cosijn & Doris de Vries
• productional assistance: Remi Cosijn
• image: Charlotte Jodogne
• (image)technical and auditory support: Maaike Jaspers, Charlotte Jodogne
• photos: Juliette de Groot
• special thanks to the interviewees
• extra thanks: KASK & Conservatorium, VIERNULVIER, De Kazematten, Gouvernement, CAMPO, Pepijn Huysman, Jana De Kockere, Martha Balthazar, Frederik Le Roy, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet, Sjoerd Koolma, kunstencentrum BUDA & fellow students
• with the support of DeAuteurs

Five theatre-makers and a camerawoman try to provide an answer to an excess of content-less pastime through a sitcom about twenty-somethings. As they fight content with more content, the line between fact and fiction blurs. With Pilot, FoyerTV touches on the growing sense of anxiety in our time; fear of being forgotten, of missing something, of being expendable or unsuccessful. In this way, FoyerTV portrays a generation immersed in the images that surround them: from home video to Hollywood, from philosopher Mark Fisher to Friends.

Subscribe now to enjoy this live multicam event!

FoyerTV is a metamodern instagram account managed by a changing group of theatre makers who create reports around performances in the foyer. 

On 22.06.2024, the performance will be followed by a subsequent 'closing statement' for the drama section of Graduation 2024.

Credits

• by & with: Esther van der Wel, Dagmar Dierick, Judith Engelen, Pieter van Dijk & Toon Acke
• camera: Alejandra Rogghé Pérez
• dramaturgy: Milan Van Bortel & Quinty De Vries
• production: Quinty De Vries
• technics: Ika Schwander
• technical production: Flore van Sparrentak
• scenography: Femke Florus
• costumes: Laura Lemaitre
• coaching: Jan Steen
• thanks to: Bauke Lievens, Simon De Winne, Wannes Gyselinck, Sven Ronsijn, Wim Helsen, Sebald van der Waal, Benoît Vanraes & onze medestudenten
• coproduction: KASK & Conservatorium, CAMPO & FoyerTV
• supported by: De Auteurs

“It seems likely that they were an experiment. The thought is unpleasant, but the possibility cannot be ignored. What is very hard for us to understand is that these people are neither man nor woman, neither and both, cyclic, lunar, metamorphosing under the hand’s touch, changelings in the human cradle. They are not neuters. They are potentials or integrals.

Therefore on Winter there is no unconsenting sex, nor rape and for seemingly similar reasons these people have never had what one might call a war. In the end, I believe, the dominant factor in their life is not sex or any other human thing: it is cold. Here man has a crueler enemy than even themselves. Someone else will have to think this theory out, though. But, I really don’t see how anyone would be willing to think of victory or defeat after they spent a winter on Winter, and seen the face of the Ice.”

• (Day 81 from field notes of Ong T. Oppong, Investigator of the first landing party on Winter

Planet Winter is the graduation performance by Bavo Buys & Maliqa Fye, in collaboration with Martha Balthazar and Matilde Casier. Starting from the science fiction classic The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin, they build a story as big as the world it takes place in.

Planet Winter is not a prophecy, but a thought experiment. What if a respected politician has to go on the run with an alien figure and together they have to cross 1,300 km of ice? What if a trek is not an adventure? What if the universe fits in a carry-on bag, and the carry-on bag in your left hand?

Three players move onto the ice and imagine a future. A future that will never happen and has never taken place, except very briefly on stage.

Credits:

• inspiration: The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) van Ursula K. Le Guin
• concept & execution: Bavo Buys, Maliqa Fye, Martha Balthazar & Matilde Casier
• play: Bavo Buys, Maliqa Fye & Matilde Casier
• dramaturgy: Martha Balthazar
• costumes: Lena Mariën
• music: Bully Fae Collins
• translation: Bavo Buys
• productional assistance: Alicia Andries
• technics: Pieter Grypdonck, Lilith Pas & Martha Balthaza
• surtitling: Eliza Stuyck
• mentors: Jan Steen, Bosse Provoost, Ezra Veldhuis, Wannes Gyselinck & Frederik Le Roy
• special thanks: Gouvernement, CAMPO, KASK DRAMA, Bardia Mohammed, Valerie Desmet & Lander Govaerts
• poster: Maliqa Fye
• supported by: deAuteurs & HOGENT

Maria yearns for a life as in The Sound of Music (1965), the international blockbuster about an uninhibited nun, also named Maria, who becomes the gouvernante of the von Trapp family.

To get as close as possible to that life, she tries to reenact the film in its entirety.

Maria sings every song, she climbs every mountain.

Maria embraces Maria and never lets go of her.

The Sont of Mjoezik is a duet between a young woman and the silver screen, between an aspiring actress and the characters who shaped her.

Balancing on the edge of a hopeful childhood and a promising future, she tries to be what she once imagined she would become.

But as she directs herself to perfection, her body changes.

She grows, but the silver screen does not.

credits

• play & concept: Maria Zandvliet
• final direction: Marieke Schraepen
• mentor: Willem de Wolf en Bauke Lievens
• light design: Dirk De Hooghe
• editing: Sebald van der Waal
• image: Timo van Sark
• with thanks to: hetpaleis, KASK & Conservatorium, CAMPO, VIERNULVIER, De Kazematten, Frederik Le Roy, Bardia Mohammed, Valerie Desmet, Suzanne Koopstra, Lenny Sprenger, Lyckle de Jong, Mariëtte Schölvinck en Leo Zandvliet.

Tell me what you think about me?

Have you been in a lot of situationships?

What red flags do you look out for when dating someone?

Do you think that only if we eat enough of one thing, you will become it?

Which kind of chips do you prefer?

And which kind of cookies?

And do you match it with the kind of content that you’re binge-watching?

What about online shopping, does it make life easier?

Do you ever feel like suffocating in a plastic bag?

Do you ever feel like a piece of plastic?

Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

I wonder where you are right now, probably all around and I don’t even notice you. Sometimes your touch can feel pretty soothing, or your sound. It’s hard to resist. I think you can make me sick. Maybe you already did. I do feel a certain connection to you but it feels like I’m sort of responsible for you being here, like I forced you to be with me and that just doesn’t feel very healthy for either of us. We’re better off without each other, but I don’t know how to leave you.. I cannot imagine my life without you anymore I guess. Maybe we are degenerating together. Maybe we will wander the earth lightly, moving with winds, waves, animals. We will infest each other's intestines, resisting slightly. But eventually we will give in, adapt, be each other in unison. Maybe we’re already there. Then where does this longing come from?

Life in Plastic is a piece about people searching for depth and connection in a world that seems increasingly about surface. How deep should you dig when looking for sincerity in plastic landscapes?

Credits

• from: Emma Verstraete & Maryam Sserwamukoko
• with: Maryam Sserwamukoko, Tijmen Van Damme, Ella Boomsma (19 June) & Rinus Martha Chaerle (20 june)
• music/sound: Kim Eldarova
• light: Marthe Leon Thys
• costumes: Charlotte Callens
• practical mentor: Kristof van Baarle
• outside eye: Lieselot Siddiki
• production: Titus Smessaert
• image: Arthur Loontjens & Maria de Cort - MUA Bavo Buys & Malique Fye
• thanks to: Heike Langsdorf, Wannes Gyselinck, Bauke Lievens, Simon De Winne, Carolina Maciel de França, Mieja Hollevoet, Frederik Le Roy, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet, Geeraard Respeel, Luanda Casella, Ahilan Ratnamohan, Hooman Jeddy, Ipman van biowinkel PANDA, Bio-Lab KASK & Conservatorium

Enter a world of questions, where every thought is a mirror of our society and the structures we are stuck in. ‘Hier en nu, Altijd daar' is besides a performance, also an invitation to introspection, a confrontation with the emptiness that opens up when we question the logic of our thinking.

In this performance, Senne and the audience question their own existence, and challenge the foundations of who we think we are. ‘hier en nu, Altijd daar' arose from a spiritual search for the core of our existence. It is an invitation to question our own identity and society, and ultimately, to discover what lurks in the emptiness that surrounds us.

Credits

• play & creation: Senne Paulussen
• practice mentor: Geert Belpaeme
• theory mentor: Kristof Van Baarle

This is not a love song is the graduation performance by Joshua Smits and Fiene Zasada, in collaboration with Luca Persan. They created a performance based on personal desires, their own view of intimacy and the urge for love and friendship.

This is not a love song is an ode to imagination. Two people, on a bed, closed off from the outside world. They want to be both loved and in love. To satisfy those desires, they seek connection with each other. Forcing each other into positions in order to feel something. Something real. Something big. Something compelling. What if the imagination is boundless? How real can it become then?

Credits

• concept, tekst & spel: Joshua Smits, Fiene Zasada
• dramaturgy: Luca Persan 
• coaching: Lucie Plasschaert
• final direction: Luca Persan, Lucie Plasschaert
• costumes: Joshua Smits
• mentors: Jan Steen, Scarlet Tummers, Bauke Lievens, Frederik Le Roy
• technics: Luca Persan
• image poster: Arthur Loontjens
• poster: Malique Fye
• thanks to: Laurens Aneca, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet, Kato Lights, Louis Verlinde, De Kazematten, CAMPO, Gouvernement, KASK DRAMA, laGeste, LOD Muziektheater, our classmates, Fugazi, Astrid Vansteenkiste
• Met de steun van HOGENT

Weather Pleasure embodies the power of imagination, but also its danger. When observation and imagination met, History dreamed of women. He imagined her, molded her and deformed her. Can women continue to imagine when their story seems fixed? Time passes, yet the weather remains unchanged.

Weather Pleasure is a feverish dream where two women, alongside the help of their companion Kate Brock, strive to transcend their bodies. Can they change the weather forecast, despite their wounds of being and unbecoming? How to soften, liquify, and transform? When the sun and its fluffy clouds, fail to acknowledge the storm brooding within, rocks form. These three women evaporate in a visceral immersive trip where bodies are opened, felt, questioned and remembered.

Credits

• player/maker: Melody Van Gompel
• player/maker: Marie Nguyen De Buck
• voice Kate Brock: Abigail Gypens
• scenography: Tania Malangombe en Jannes Moons
• costumes: Long Tran Thang
• music: Nona Huysegems
• technics: Astrid Vansteenkiste
• poster: Jannes Moons
• thanks to: Luanda Casella, Bauke Lievens, Frederik Le Roy, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet, Luna Luz Deshayes, Xante Moyersoen, Passerelle vzw, BUDA Kunstencentrum, Monty vzw, Kunstacademie Zaventem, CAMPO, LOD, Klein Verzet vzw, Margaux Rooryck en Michel Rooryck, Eef Smeyers, Lender Vandevelde, Loïc Meulenberg, Nina-Joy Thielemans, Anne-Sophie Buset en Maxime Schildmeijer

Sitting time
Smoking time
Summertime
Seagull time

Bedtime
Lifetime
History time
Spacetime

What time?

Time balances
Time rules

Time
A bench
A field
A grave

Time-like ocean
Sand-like time

Time to dance
Time to laugh

Timed
Timing
Timer

Timeout
And time

Credits

• from & with: Felix Braeckman & Robbe Vandenven
• inspired by: Moscow Art Theatre Lettres by Jean Benedetti, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov & 5 Pieces for 2 Violins and Piano by Dmitri Shostakovich / Levon Atovmyan
• composition & piano: Côme Lenseigne, Marianne Van Caekenberghe
• costume design: Karl Joonas Alamaa
• artistic assistant: Lynn Van Hoydonck
• mentors: Paola Bertoletti en Frederik Le Roy
• thanks to: KASK & Conservatorium, De Veerman, c o r s o, Monty, hetpaleis, buda, CAMPO, Gouvernement, Danspunt, laGeste, De Kazematten, Bardia Mohammad, Valerie Desmet, Kiana Dekkers, Tobias van Nieuwenhove & Ward Vandenven
• with support from HOGENT & all the people who donated through the fundraiser

Niet zonder Hert

Dit is een plek zonder naam

Dit is een plek met verschillende vormen

Een plek die composities maakt

een kruising

Een plek waar gras door komt

waar mensen passeren

Een hond loopt langs gebruikt mij als pispaal

Een sigaret

Een moeder

Een roze rugzak

Een kind met gele regenjas

Ze zien mij niet of ze zien mij ook als pispaal maar plassen niet

Een blik ananassen op het bankje tegen de muur

Duiven

Getoeter

Een brommer

Nutteloos zo hoor ik het park

Het park verandert samen met mij

Op zoek naar een begin een schuilplaats

Een lijn

Een schoen zonder mens

Iets blinkend

Iemand om mee te spelen

Je te zien

Credits

• by & with: Renée Leerman
• play: Friedle De Meyere, Vera Goldhoorn en Susan Smith
• practice mentor: Renée Goethijn
• theory mentor: Séba Hendrickx
• inspiration for Lancelot: Wolf
• outside eye: Titus Smessaert
• inspiration and listening ear: Leontien Allemeersch, Kato Van Ermen, Susan Smith, Nancy Vansieleghem
• inspiration for text: De Aleph van Jorge Luis Borges, Verzamelde verhalen van Julio Cortazar, Het verborgen leven van bomen van Peter Wohlleben, Vuurduin van Eva Meijer, Ruimten Rondom van Georges Perec
• thanks to: Matilde Casier

ze leven in een vacuüm van taal, een plek die uit niets anders bestaat dan
woorden, zinnen en tekens, waar elke betekenis en verwijzing even vluchtig is als
de lucht die hun [klanken] doet ontstaan, het spel, van de taal, regeert en, de
grenzen, van communicatie vervagen, ze, verliezen [zichzelf] in de
vanzelfsprekende beweging en, de rituelen, van het alledaagse ze proberen de
juiste klanken [te vinden] om elkaar te begrijpen ze bouwen hun eigen
vocabularium, komen, elkaar tegen, in hun uiteenlopende, ritmes ze zoeken
[vaste gronden in scripts] [bureaucratische procedures] antwoordapparaten,
wetten, lachtapes, [Wittgenstein 6.373] en afgelijnde partituren

Credits

• Tembi De Koninck — player/maker
• Seppe Somers — player/maker
• Robbe Embrechts — maker/direction/music
• thanks to: Bardia Mohammad, Bauke Lievens, Mieja Hollevoet, Simon De Winne, Valerie Desmet