Funeral

The Belgian performance group Ontroerend Goed is well known for pushing the boundaries of theater. “If art is not challenging, why bother?” says the group’s director Alexander Devriendt. The audience is very much part of the group’s performances. In one of their productions, £¥€$, audience members were seated at gaming tables, as if in a casino. And TM matched up individual visitors with a recruiter from a fictive organization for an intake interview.

Funeral sees Ontroerend Goed again connecting with their audience. It is a performance about the world of funerals, the definitive occasion for combining ritual, shared emotion and religion. A staged ceremony explores our relationship with the final farewell, in a collective ritual about the transience of all things.

“We will greet each other, and we will bid farewell. There will be singing, and there will be pretending. Then there will be light, and a time for darkness. We will light candles. We will eat and drink. And we will raise a toast together to our long lives. And then it will end. Welcome.”

Please be aware that this performance is not seated. The audience will be standing throughout the performance.

IDFA on Stage: Funeral is a co-presentation of IDFA and Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond.