Welcome to Caveland! is set in an allegorical world populated by fantasy animals, giant moles and figures from the underworld. The cave dwellers travel from city to city like a circus to present their ‘ecosophical’ tale in theatres and at festivals.

Some girls fall for the wrong kind of men, but Laura van Dolron falls for the wrong kind of philosophers. Once a year, Jean-Paul Sartre pays her a visit and bombards her with philosophical rhetoric. This time, however, things turn out differently: the man wants to apologise. During the cathartic brainwashing that follows, Van Dolron broaches life’s grand themes, sparing no one in the process – neither you nor herself.

As an annual rendezvous for those working on a sustainable future, this latest Ecopolis starts out from the question ‘what can we do about the current ecological challenge, and by what means?’

It is not since staging of/niet ten years ago in 2006 that the STAN actors have created a performance featuring just the four of them, with no guest actors. Now they are presenting wat/nu, based on Sleep you little child of mine by Jon Fosse and A Piece of Plastic by Marius von Mayenburg.

The actor and director Koen De Sutter brings the philosopher Michel de Montaigne to the stage. Montaigne thinks about the large and small things of life. He is curious and looks critically at those in power and at himself. But above all, he is hungry for good conversation.

During the First World War, the theatre-maker Simon Allemeersch’s great grandfather deserted and fled on foot to the Netherlands, where he ended up being imprisoned for four years in the military camp at Zeist. Together with a group of actors, makers and musicians, Simon Allemeersch attempts to reconstruct his story.

‘Food for thought’, that is The Discreet Charm of Marxism. Marxist texts on the class struggle and revolution are staged as a six-course meal. In the meantime real food and drink are served, as ‘books’. No one will go hungry!

Following her starring role in the major production Hamlet vs Hamlet (directed by Guy Cassiers), the actress and theatre-maker Abke Haring is once again working on a small scale in her new solo Unisono. Her work is always intense and brutally honest.

Once again, the Brussels Studies Institute will be mobilising a crack team of researchers and thinkers to share their knowledge of Brussels with you. In between the presentations and discussions, you’ll be treated to short performances by Brussels-based artists.