http://www.toneelhuis.be

Toneelhuis is one of the three civic theatre that has a resident company, and the largest theatre company in Flanders. It was set up in 1998 after a fusion of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg (KNS) in Antwerp and the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie in Ghent.

Under Luk Perceval’s leadership, Toneelhuis has once again played a leading role in contemporary theatre production. His artistic vision resulted in various nominations and prizes for the company. After Perceval was appointed house director of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin in 2005, Josse De Pauw took over artistic direction for one year.

Since 2006 theatre-maker Guy Cassiers acts as artistic director of Toneelhuis. Cassiers had been working as artistic director of the ro theater in Rotterdam from 1999 to 2006, where he made (among other things) a highly acclaimed four-part cycle based on Marcel Proust’s novel A la recherche du temps perdu.

On his appointment in Antwerp, Cassiers decided to replace the classical model of the municipal theatre – i.e. a fixed troupe of actors and one or more permanent directors – with a new model. Cassiers invited six theatre-makers to take up residence with him at Toneelhuis. They are Benjamin Verdonck, Wayn Traub, Lotte van den Berg, Olympique Dramatique, De Filmfabriek / Peter Missotten and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Though young, these theatre-makers have already covered considerable ground artistically. Together they are the face of the multi-talented and versatile Toneelhuis.

Apart from diversity, dynamism is another Toneelhuis characteristic. From 2009-2010 the artistic constellation takes on new contours. Lotte van den Berg now has Omsk, a structure of her own in Dordrecht (Netherlands). Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Wayn Traub have received subsidies to develop an autonomous dance and music theatre company. Toneelhuis will stay in close contact with these departing artists. At the same time two new theatre-makers are joining the ranks: playwright, essayist and poet Bart Meuleman and Abke Haring, writer and actor.

The artistic aspirations of the theatre-makers constitute the hub and heart of Toneelhuis. The power of their imagination drives the theatre. They are very different and highly individualized artists and Toneelhuis is keen to capitalize on this artistic diversity. Theatre, dance, video, performance and music all sit round the table together.
However different these theatre-makers may be, what they have in common is the lack of importance they attach to the conventional codes of the theatre. Or, to put it in a more positive light, they are all in search of new forms of expression and new forms of theatrical communication with the public.

Topical subject matter is distilled from these different forms and different artistic disciplines and thematized. Hence, for example, Guy Cassiers’ power and politics (Triptiek van de Macht), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s intercultural dialogue (Myth and Origine), Lotte van den Berg’s authenticity and faith (Winterverblijf), Benjamin Verdonck’s reflections on urbanity, Wayn Traub’s ritualization, Peter Missotten’s sense of the end of time and the dynamic of Olympique Dramatique’s closed community. Bart Meuleman and Abke Haring have no intention of avoiding vulgarity, obscenity and the traumatic aspects of reality in their scripts.

Toneelhuis sees Antwerp as its natural artistic habitat and is determined to be part of Antwerp’s cultural life and of the urban culture. As well as staging the work of the artists at its home base, Toneelhuis travels abroad with their productions with ever greater frequency.