http://vti.be/en/http/%252Fwww.abattoirferme.be

Abattoir Fermé is a theatre collective whose activities centre upon a fascination for outsider art, the underground and ‘all things deviant’: seeking out new themes, dramaturgies and theatre forms.

Abattoir Fermé’s performances are often based on eccentric characters, dissidents, science fiction writers and countercultural voices. The company’s visual aesthetic is rich in imagery, with a grotesque or escapist tint. They modify, sample and contextualize influences from cinema, documentary, journalism, psychiatry, outsider art and comic books.

The collective does not use existing plays. Abattoir Fermé uses thematic materials to create their own texts, in a quest that has been described as follows: ‘the artistic need to seek out new frames of reference and to make the invisible visible, taking shape in the creation of unique texts and a continual search for new theatrical forms of expression.’

Indie (2005), the first part of the highly acclaimed Chaos trilogy, takes the audience to the apocalyptic world city of Lala-land. The doors of the slaughterhouse swing open to reveal a world full of eccentric characters, horrific images, sick humour and an associative narrative style. The second part, Tinseltown (2006) delves deeper into the mythology of the Chaos trilogy and shifts the setting to a Hollywood-style ghost town populated by jaded directors and waitresses with acting ambitions. Abattoir Fermé ended the trilogy with Lala-land (2007), a tale from the city, once again inspired by the fascination for the underworld and the metropolis, but this time in the form of a monologue. Tourniquet (2007) was a wordless production set in a house where three characters abandon themselves to rituals, trance and exorcism. In 2010, Abattoir Fermé is working on its ‘Index trilogy’.

Abattoir Fermé was founded in 1999. The heart of the collective is formed by Stef Lernous, Joost Vandecasteele, Tine Van den Wyngaert and Nick Kaldunski.