In Japanese, suteru means “rid oneself of” and tabi “journey” or “occasion”. Suteru Tabi is the moving story of a young man who is trying to cope with the death of his father. Out of the loss and mourning he becomes stronger and succeeds in taking responsibility for his life. With just four chairs and a handful of props, the Japanese author and director Shiro Maeda creates a performance rich in imagery that combines poetry with humour, magic and realism.

Over the last few years, the Mechelen collective Abattoir Fermé has built up a strong repertoire that swings between dream, hallucination and nightmare. Snuff (Index 1) is the company’s first production for the large stage. It premieres at the Kaaitheater.

Apart from the ‘official’ gospels there is also a gospel according to Judas. In it Judas relates his version of the facts: he did not ‘betray’ Jesus. In the Judas Passion by the composer Dominique Pauwels and the writer Pieter de Buysser Judas tells his story from a modern perspective. An apology of the weakness of human nature.

Apart from two permanent members, Natali Broods, Robby Cleiren, Tine Embrechts and Nico Sturm will join in the creation and performance of STUKKEN which will have its opening performance in Kaaitheater. The material of the performance is provided by the writers Saskia De Coster, Patricia De Martelaere, Tom Lanoye, Bart Moeyaert, Yves Petry and Annelies Verbeke.

New performance by Abke Haring, in association with poet and theatre-maker Bart Meuleman. Sound (Senjan Jansen) and image (the artist Jean Bernard Koeman) play an interactive role.

Stef Lernous, director with Abattoir Fermé, and the young composer Daan Janssens have been working with two young singers and two musicians on a study project based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. The atmosphere is one of chaos, gloom, madness and ancient gods. Lovecraft is one of the ‘grandparents’ of modern science fiction and horror. His writing presented the prospect of a horrible world for mankind.

Inspired by Shakespeare and Hölderlin, Jan Decorte has created a cheery performance about power, jealousy, despair, love and a little bird. He is supported by his faithful henchmen Sigrid Vinks, Johan Daenen (set design), Sofie D’Hoore (costumes) and Luc Schaltin (lighting), and his actor friends Waas Gramser, Kris Van Trier and Herwig Ilegems.

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.

Sight is the sense that dying people tend to lose first is a free-associating monologue that tumbles from topic to topic as it outlines a broad picture of the world. Comical in its naiveté and preposterously encyclopaedic in its ambitions, it explores the absurdities and horror of the human brain, which wants to understand everything.

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.

LEX resembles a feverish dream or an oracle. The person speaking is a man whose being we cannot immediately identify. Is this God in his true guise? A god born of words and images? Or is this man an Idol? A divine figure? Verhelst’s inspiration was Alexander the Great. The script contains passages from Dante’s Divine Comedy, Joyce’s Ulysses and the collected works of Shakespeare.