SHIFT: Louis Janssens - Family
15 May
Family is a poetic and relatable performance about the universal concept of family. Starting from a queer perspective, it tells a broader human story about having a family — and searching for one.
Not everyone has children, but in the end, we are all someone’s child.
For the performance Family, theatre maker Louis Janssens has invited four performers from different generations to join him on stage. Together, they share stories, ask questions and seek comfort, support and recognition in one another. The performance explores how family ties connect us and how they inevitably shape our lives. About families by blood and chosen families. About parents and children, growing up, and the fear of being left alone. The performers appear on stage as themselves, yet as the performance unfolds, they seem to increasingly become each other’s family.
In recent years, Louis Janssens created the solo performance Serenade (#nieuwjong Het TheaterFestival 2021), the duet Analoog with Willem de Wolf (Het TheaterFestival and Nederlands Theaterfestival 2023), and Desire (Het Thea…
Not everyone has children, but in the end, we are all someone’s child.
For the performance Family, theatre maker Louis Janssens has invited four performers from different generations to join him on stage. Together, they share stories, ask questions and seek comfort, support and recognition in one another. The performance explores how family ties connect us and how they inevitably shape our lives. About families by blood and chosen families. About parents and children, growing up, and the fear of being left alone. The performers appear on stage as themselves, yet as the performance unfolds, they seem to increasingly become each other’s family.
In recent years, Louis Janssens created the solo performance Serenade (#nieuwjong Het TheaterFestival 2021), the duet Analoog with Willem de Wolf (Het TheaterFestival and Nederlands Theaterfestival 2023), and Desire (Het TheaterFestival 2024), which was also presented at Explore the North Festival. He now creates Family together with an intergenerational queer cast consisting of Peter Seynaeve (NTGent, Het Zuidelijk Toneel), Maureen Teeuwen (Maatschappij Discordia, mugmetdegoudentand), Mourad Baaiz (Artemis/hetpaleis/Het Zuidelijk Toneel, Schauspielhaus Bochum) and Francis Geeraert (Compagnie Barbarie).