Grey Gardens

Where laughing becomes crying

In 1975 the documentary film-makers Albert & David Maysles came across a house that was completely overgrown in the chic New York suburb of East Hampton. The dilapidated villa turned out to be inhabited by Edith Beale and her daughter Edith – or Big Edie and Little Edie. The Beales had very few close friends, even though they were closely related to the former first lady, Jackie Kennedy! Over the years the ladies became increasingly isolated and lonely. Their only companions were fleas, stray cats and a couple of raccoons that ate their way through walls and ceilings. Little Edie also appeared to have been traumatised by a failed career in show business – thwarted by the mother. They design their own clothes and reminisce about unrequited love, and taunt each other about the past and present to the point where the boundaries separating comedy and drama become blurred and they laugh until they cry.

• Abattoir Fermé has already wanted to do a stage adaptation for a few years now. The company found the right combination of actors in Chiel van Berkel and Gene Bervoets who play the mother and daughter. Grey Gardens is a performance about impoverished nobility, glamour and the transience of life.

Soul Food: dining with Stef Lernous

Sat 5/04: 6 > 8pm, Kaaistudios | in Dutch | dinner €12 (does not include ticket for the show)

You sit down for a tasty meal with a glass of wine and a dessert, and in the meantime the journalist Anna Luyten will talk to Stef Lernous, stage director at Abattoir Fermé, about his sources of inspiration. Lernous is the author of what is now an impressive oeuvre unrivalled in the theatre of the Low Countries and far beyond.