De Barbaren [15+]

In a city like Glasgow, domestic violence against women increases by 30% when the Celtics and Rangers play each other. Now and then, a football player from Africa gets a banana peel thrown at his him. Driven to despair by the booing from the stands, British-Nigerian professional footballer Justinus Soni Fashanu committed suicide after his outing. In short, what is condemned outside a sports stadium turns out to be rampant on and off the football pitch. Undisguised racism, machismo and homophobia, billion-dollar transfers and global corruption continue to be swept under the rug under the slogan: ‘football unites people’

In The Barbarians, six players are lined up, searching for the lost soul of their sport. Beyond the cynicism, they dribble their way between dreams of girls and boys, the fire of the supporters and the beauty of the goal. Haider Al Timimi once again chooses to give all the facets of a taboo a place on stage, in order to open up a social discussion.

• Kloppend Hert is the Ghent theatre company founded by Haider Al Timimi, which stands for transdisciplinary theatre with a strong social commitment. Al Timimi also directs Theater Antigone, a production house in Courtrai. Here, various performing artists, writers, actors, musicians, visual artists, and social-artistic workers find their place. In 2020, Theater Antigone took Métisse, a collaboration with Action Zoo Humain, to Kaaitheater.