Kaaitheater in times of corona
We live in surrealistic times. A virus has brought our society to a complete stop: every planned event has been summarily cancelled. That includes all the productions at Kaaitheater and the Kaaistudios until 30 June. Ticket holders will receive a message with the various reimbursement options. The ticket office remains open by telephone and email during office hours. Meanwhile, we continue to work and shape the new 2020-2021 season. We are eager to share the programme with you and get back together again!
All of us staying healthy is of paramount importance, but the long list of cancelled performances remains a heavy blow. For audiences, for theatres and their teams, but above all for the artists and freelancers who have had to take a drastic cut in their income. Because Kaaitheater wants to make a difference, we have launched a solidarity account [see below] to give them some extra breathing room. We are asking the audiences of cancelled productions to forego their reimbursement and to donate this money to the support fund.
Cancelled productions and talks:
- Faustin Linyekula/NTGent – Histoire(s) du Théâtre II
- FC Bergman – JR
- Krystian Lada & Symfonisch Orkest Opera Vlaanderen – Symphony of Expectation
- Rimah Jabr & Dareen Abbas – Broken Shapes
- Graham Harman – On Immaterialism
- Boris Charmatz – infini
- Tristero – Iemand van ons
- Doris Uhlich – Every Body Electric [medium]
- Gorges Ocloo – Moby Dick
- Geert Mak – Grote verwachtingen
- David Weber-Krebs & Jeroen Peeters – On Enclosed Spaces and the Great Outdoors – 4. Grounding
- Sarah & Charles – In the Hands of Puppets (performance)
- Sarah & Charles & KAOS – In the Hands of Puppets (talk)
- Jonathan Burrows – Rewriting
- Claire Croizé & Etienne Guilloteau – Pole Reports from Space
- Michiel Vandevelde/Platform-K & Philippe Thuriot – The Goldberg Variations
- Maatschappij Discordia & de Roovers – Liebe Jelinek
- Joost Vandecasteele – Culturo Says No
- Radouan Mriziga – Tafukt
- Encyclopédie de la parole / Joris Lacoste, Pierre-Yves Macé, Sébastien Roux & Ictus – Suite n° 4
- Boris Groys – On Antiphilosophy
- Guy Cassiers / Toneelhuis – Antigone in Molenbeek & Tiresias
- Zhao Tingyang – on Tianxia
- Daniel Linehan / Hiatus – sspeciess
- Benjamin Verdonck / Toneelhuis – De tijger eet de zebra en de vogel vliegt verschrikt weg
- Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods – Celestial Sorrow
How might the Kaaitheater solidarity account help?
Due to the new coronavirus, an increasing number of productions and projects are disappearing from our calendars. This is especially hurting artists and the freelancers who work for them: they have already invested large sums and are now losing every opportunity to recover these costs. As a subsidized institution, we can make a difference.
Fortunately, Kaaitheater can appeal to temporary redundancy compensation due to force majeure, while part of our team continues to work on the practical implementation of these drastic cancellations but also to prepare for next season. Our future perspective changes weekly, in line with the developments of this pandemic.
The impact of the cancellations on the artists, teams, and companies that we would otherwise have welcomed to Kaaitheater in this period is different in each case. Some have a safety net, others do not. Some projects can be postponed, but others are cancelled definitively.
The solidarity account is financed by ticket revenues from audience members who donate the price of the tickets they bought to productions at Kaaitheater that have been cancelled – and we are very grateful! This money is destined for the worst affected artists in our programme and the freelancers who work for them.
These are our promises:
- That we pay the artists (part of) their fee, and refund the expenses they have already made.
- That freelancers working on the cancelled productions receive compensation.
- That we review these payments on a case by case basis, taking the various needs into account.
We are very grateful for your generosity and trust.
