The Lost Show

Bashing.

A word that sounds like the act itself. One can only imagine the bewilderment and helplessness of the victims. And we often have an opinion about that too.

In SKaGeN's new performance, Bjarne Devolder, along with Lukas Smolders (Angels In America - Olympic Dramatic) and Valentijn Dhaenens (SkaGeN & KVS), goes on a quest to find out what goes on in the minds of seemingly ordinary people who for no apparent reason start hitting or shooting people, or causing psychological harm through verbal means. The creators wonder about the perverse pleasure these people derive from these acts: it is odious but also a reason for fascination.

What traumas are at the origin of these acts? Is there only what Freud calls resentment and is there a deeper, social responsibility to be found in our society's shift to the right? Or are we talking about individual responsibility? The themes addressed in this performance are anger, toxic masculinity, (gay)bashing and political extremes. The creators study the importance of group dynamics, feelings of superiority and perverse desire. They do so on the basis of exemplary stories from world literature that have their roots in hatred, aggression and toxic world views.

The performance does not want to hold up a moralizing finger. It studies how radicalization in all its forms can occur. Who owns the truth and where are the lines drawn? For that is the reasoning then: “We do not close the door out of hatred for the other, but out of love for those who are inside.”