(Not) Easy to Be Many?

Together in the dark at last

Kaaitheater is taking a leap of faith: soon, at the end of summer, we will re-open our doors for the start of a new season. It is like a mantra, an incantation. A spell to ward off anything that would come in the way. Most of last season, like many theatres and art centres, we have been working in the background and, hidden away, we have been endlessly ready finally to open again.

Because this is about preparation. Performing arts are about preparation. About working days and nights for weeks and months to give shape to something that does not yet exist. Like preparing for a meal, a revolution, for something you are projecting, you are plotting.

Many questions emerged during these preparations. How can we learn to keep our doors open? How to be many in the city? In society? In a theatre?
We discovered that it is not easy to be many. There is no easy recipe for the meal we want to cook, no manual for the changes we want to make happen. What we found was a path and people to walk with and learn from.

These are the Brussels based organizations or collectives that took a walk on that path, with us: Citylab, Mophradat, For All Queens!, Wipcoop, Mothers&Daughters & Moussem.
While we were walking, we asked them: what are we missing today, on our stages? In this city? Their answers are visible in this programme. We are very grateful for their openness, and willingness to join forces.

These are people, theatre makers and choreographers, that we also invited to walk along on our stages in the coming months: people such as Betty Tchomanga, Benjamin Vandewalle & HYOID, Meg Stuart, Roland Gunst, Mette Ingvartsen, Gisèle Vienne, Sarah Vanhee, Trajall Harrel, Simon Allemeersch, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas... Here you can discover all the details about the works they and many other artists will be presenting.

There is more. As part of the thematic programme line We Hear You(th), Ant Hampton, Anna Rispoli, Francesca Grilli, Kyoko Scholiers and Lara Staal believe listening to the voices of young people is the only way to the future.

Within the new city festival Sous les pavés, het strand/Onder de stenen, la plage, the Social Coalition, Permanent, Tools for Action, and the Panorama Ring Ring writers, look at the changing city that surrounds us, on the lookout for another Brussels to emerge from under the concrete blocks of the quartier nord.

With VUB/Crosstalks, we continue to carve out the question of how to live on earth – together with other species and nature.

Learning ‘How to Be Many’ – the question we introduced last year – is a process. On our way to change, we encounter our own attachments to known powers, positions and routines.
Yes, being many is not easy. Especially in times where uncertainty remains a constant – and a shadow continues to occupy one seat out of two on our tribune – and especially when doubt has been nesting for so long in our work and in our wallets.

That is why we decided to twist the rules, rewrite some conventions and try to learn anew how to organize structural solidarity. That's why Kaaitheater, in the weeks leading up to the summer, has been experimenting with a ‘pay what you can’ policy, to make room for more people. You will soon hear more about the future of this experiment.

To be many is not easy.
It is challenging, exciting, and very much needed.

–  AGNES QUACKELS & BARBARA VAN LINDT
artistic & general coordinators Kaaitheater