http://www.in-vitro.be

IN VITRO is a small company whose artistic core comprises the stage director and costume designer Daphne Kitschen and the architect and lighting designer Jan Dekeyser. In 2004, while working at Troubleyn/Jan Fabre, they both had the idea of doing something on their own.
In 2005 the company made its debut with Prometheus, whose first performance took place at Les Brigitinnes in Brussels in conjunction with the Dez Mona music group. Since then, IN VITRO has presented its own productions, installations, performances and guest productions in turn.
After successful joint ventures for the productions De Zandman and MILK, in 2007 the artistic team was joined by the dancer and choreographer Karolina Wolkowiecka and Dirk Veulemans (electronic compositions).

IN VITRO’s aim is to create theatre as a multidisciplinary medium, a hybrid form combining dance, text, music, soundscape, video, installation, entertainment, ritual, circus and mime. In terms of categories, however, the company comes closest to musical theatre.
For all its stage productions, IN VITRO works closely with music groups (Dez Mona, The Black Heart Rebellion) and also with ensembles of classically trained musicians (B’Rock, Spectra and Hermes, Eurudike De Beul, Marc Maes, Inez Carsauw and Andrew Claes).
The works IN VITRO draws from the classical repertoire are mainly contemporary pieces by such composers as Salvatore Sciarinno. It then juxtaposes them with other genres (including some more popular ones), different contexts and a different location.
IN VITRO sees the world of sound as a driving force in its productions. It tries to compose a continuous and seamless combination of filmic power and live performance. The musicians are always actively involved and participate in the content of what occurs on stage. Bruitage, improvisation, electronic interventions, ‘fernorchester’, sound objects, crooners and so on are all woven into this setting.

IN VITRO works on a project basis and puts new material and a new cast together for each production, depending on the theme and concept. The artistic process always starts from scratch, and this also includes the choice of location. The company works with the space as it is, without set or decoration, with mobile props and items found on the spot, thus sticking both to the principles of arte povera and to one of the film principles of Dogma 95. IN VITRO has a penchant for the melancholy of certain deserted locations and wishes to redefine empty spaces. They have for example performed in the Brigittine Chapel in Brussels (before it was renovated), the Military Hospital in Antwerp, an old chocolate factory, and so on.

As far as its themes are concerned, the company draws inspiration from the mediatised society, but tries to detect the trends that underlie it. Its productions are rather dark, due to the focus on such topics as the notion of progress (Prometheus), fear and manipulation (De Zandman), rhetoric (MILK) and loneliness (Medea). By contrast, the central theme of Moby Dick (2010-11) is hope.
The company presents these themes in an abstract and concealed manner and aims more for organic stratification and a cryptic puzzle-like construction. Its productions are characterised by the open narrative structure of myths and fairytales, sensory choices, the live approach, the real-life space, and playing with time the way it is used films. With its preference for the unreal, the dreamworld and the inexplicable, the company tries to appeal to the audience’s imagination. Imagination as a weapon against clichés, rhetoric and a conditioned existence.