Malgré tout

Malgré tout is a chronicle of then and now. An examination of the abyss of humanity, where the fight to survive or not to be killed determines the order of the day. What remains when the layer of civilisation is each time sanded off?  The result is cruel and funny at the same time.  

Malgré tout borrows from several disciplines and is a hybrid and satirical object, just like Jours Historiques.  In this earlier creation of the company, Gondwana, an imaginary African state, colonises Belgium. The play has several sources: first, Aurelie Di Marino and Starlette Mathata's meeting in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo), where the actresses discover that their very different lives intersect. Secondly, Curzio Malaparte's novel La pelle (the skin).   

This new work is steeped in current geopolitics: the trade in diamonds and sex of women against the backdrop of a civil war. But it soon forges links with Europe and its history. Under the guise of farce, shadows and fascism lurk. 

• Starlette Mathata is a theatre and film actress who made her debut with the DRC's Écurie Maloba company in 1992. During the civil war in the DRC she had to retreat into the bush.  For a time, Starlette had her own children's theatre school. As a children's coach, she collaborated on several documentaries and works with children and young people through dance and theatre workshops. For Belgian audiences, Starlette has performed in "A l'attente du livre d'or" (KVS/Campo 2010), "La première colonie de la République très très Démocratique du Gondwana" (detheatermaker 2016) and De Waarheidscommissie (Action Zoo Humain 2016-2018).  

• Aurelie Di Marino (born 1986) is a theatre maker and performer. She co-founded the eclectic group K.A.K., and is part of the artistic core of TransfoCollect, where heterogeneous subcultures meet in theatre. She has directed If There Weren't Any Blacks You'd Have to Invent Them and Cerebriraptor, and staged David Mamet's Race with Johan Dehollander and much more. The Kaaiprogramme featured her as a performer in Els Dietvorst's MEMENTO MORI (2019), The Average God (2022) by Tine Van Aerschot and Oksana Sankova's My pain is bigger than yours (2021). 

• Michiel Soete works in various fields within the performing arts. As a theatre maker and actor, but also as a teacher, coach, lighting designer, musician, technician, (technical) production manager, scenographer or bricoleur. He usually combines these different roles simultaneously within one project.