Jérôme Bel is a choreographer and dancer, but has for a long time also been a spectator. In Un spectateur he emerges as a superb storyteller and guides us through the visual experiences that taught him the performing arts ‘basics’ and which most influenced him as a spectator.

From January to March 2009, 16 evenings of discussion are being organised in order to reflect, together with as many Brussels people and Brussels-lovers as possible, on the challenges facing the Brussels region. On 25 April the main ideas that have emerged from these debates will be put to political figures at the Kaaitheater. This grand finale will be an encounter between city-dwellers, the organisers and experts of the Citizens Forum, journalists and politicians.

It was while working on De versie Claus that the writer Mark Schaevers and theatre-maker Josse De Pauw were caught unawares by the news that Hugo Claus had chosen to have his life brought to an end. Their ‘Claus version’, intended as a tribute, now became a memorial for the master of Flemish literature.

A lone performer takes to the stage, explaining that the show we’re watching is somehow different tonight. The atmosphere is different, his entrance was off, the lights are wrong, the tone is all wrong. Spectacular is about the trembling edge of laughter, possibility and invention. Simple, absurd and comical, this provocative new show from Forced Entertainment promises to add to their already remarkable body of work.

Three actors perform simple ritualistic acts in silence using elementary materials: water, earth, milk and honey. A text is projected onto the back wall of the stage; it is an analysis of the consumer society, alternately accusatory and self-critical. The Madrid based Argentinian Rodrigo Garcia makes highly physical and provocative theatre. This piece is more contemplative, a transcript of his baroque language.

In late November, Rodrigo Garcia was awarded the Prix Europe Nouvelles Réalités Théâtrales. There were five winners, including Guy Cassiers.

Superamas opened the Kaaitheater season with their fantastic BIG 3 (Happy/End). Their theatre is both light and complex. Full of delights and seduction, with an underlying critique of the media, society and politics. Empire (Art & Politics) criticises ‘the State’, how it is established, how it works and makes propaganda, uses violence, patronises terrorism, satisfies its hunger for power, handles foreigners, reproduces itself and, ultimately, dies.

Since the opening performance at our Comedy Festival in 2004, Tristero has presented no less than five sold-out series of Abigail’s Party, a bittersweet comedy by the filmmaker and playwright Mike Leigh. In Living, the characters from Abigail’s Party meet again. However, whereas in Abigail’s Party they are narrow-minded conformists who can never be themselves, in Living they are given the opportunity to be just this. What is the story behind their façades? For the first time Tristero is creating a performance without words.

Triptiek van de macht - part 3. Atropa. De wraak van de vrede centres on the Trojan War. The Greek general Agamemnon is confronted with the victims of his decisions. This involved Tom Lanoye rewriting several Greek tragedies. Here, as in his other plays, Guy Cassiers is a subtle master at combining the written word, image and acting.

Triptiek van de macht - part 1. Mefisto for ever is Tom Lanoye’s adaptation of Mephisto, a 1936 novel by Klaus Mann. The piece tells the story of an actor who is willingly seduced and misled by a fascist political system.

The Deer House is the concluding part of the Sad Face / Happy Face trilogy, three stories about human nature, written and directed by Jan Lauwers. Isabella’s Room (2004) is a reflection on the past. The Lobster Shop (2006) is about the future The Deer House is the present, the reality of the actors and the world in which they travel around.

A wasteland. The desolation of the environment is reflected in the characters who wander around in it. The atmosphere and the nine figures in this location performance by the Dutch theatre-maker Lotte van den Berg are inspired by the work of J.M. Coetzee, the South African writer who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003.