Alien
Gefascineerd door het vreemde
Sat 15 Jan 2022 - Sun 23 Jan 2022
The other-worldly Alien festival features Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe and Crossbones
“The worse the state of the world, the more magic we need to counteract it. Out of magic springs hope, and hope encourages people to fight for change.” Steven Spielberg, Cannes, 2016
alien, ali•en, ¹creature from another world, ²unworldly person.
During Alien, the legendary film classic E.T. from 1982 is central, in a live performance by the Brussels Philharmonic. The image of children flying off is burned into many of our brains and is part of the canon of Western film history. Whilst the men on the ground can only wave their guns around, the children fly into the air on their BMXs. Their belief in E.T. allows them to escape from the banality of the adult world in which there is no longer room for stories. Reality has become too oppressive, so they go in search of a freer world. Perhaps theatre maker Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe is one of the children of our time. He tampers determinedly with existing, normative paths. Via his imagination we escape from a world that has become too small with the new production MADRIGALEN. Eight performers and three musicians gather beneath the arched roof of a cosmic cave where the echoes, symbols and visions of submerged civilisations come together. They dance and sing amongst the smouldering embers of an ancient fire. They find one another in the nakedness of their bodies and in songs about love, sexuality, queerness and struggle. The theatre as a mysterious and hopeful ritual. Together they go in search of the human of the future.
alien, ali•en, ¹creature from another world, ²unworldly person.
During Alien, the legendary film classic E.T. from 1982 is central, in a live performance by the Brussels Philharmonic. The image of children flying off is burned into many of our brains and is part of the canon of Western film history. Whilst the men on the ground can only wave their guns around, the children fly into the air on their BMXs. Their belief in E.T. allows them to escape from the banality of the adult world in which there is no longer room for stories. Reality has become too oppressive, so they go in search of a freer world. Perhaps theatre maker Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe is one of the children of our time. He tampers determinedly with existing, normative paths. Via his imagination we escape from a world that has become too small with the new production MADRIGALEN. Eight performers and three musicians gather beneath the arched roof of a cosmic cave where the echoes, symbols and visions of submerged civilisations come together. They dance and sing amongst the smouldering embers of an ancient fire. They find one another in the nakedness of their bodies and in songs about love, sexuality, queerness and struggle. The theatre as a mysterious and hopeful ritual. Together they go in search of the human of the future.