Forget the Summer Holidays, Bring on the Theater Festival

“Forget the summer holidays, long live the TheaterFestival.” For theater lovers, the end of summer marks the beginning of the most enjoyable months of the year, with Brussels hosting this year’s festival.

For 36 years, a jury of programmers, critics and creators has selected the most striking productions from the previous season. Much of that selection returns in Brussels through September 12, giving audiences a concentrated list of performances to choose from.

One standout is Copyriot, where ghostwriter Gloria, played by Colette Goossens, discovers that a new intern shares not only her name but also her ambitions, hairstyle and clothing style. The question is whether the intern is merely similar to Gloria or stealing from her. The production combines a psychological thriller with an office comedy, while Mats Vandroogenbroeck plays Gloria’s therapist-magician and wrote the script.

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You didn't think we would stay here?

Director Nona Demey Gallagher again emerges as a distinctive voice, turning themes of gender and self-optimization into original contemporary theater. The production’s set, designed by Daniela Zorrozua, adds to its strange appeal: a gigantic tongue becomes an armchair, while a runny nose serves as a coffee machine. Copyriot plays at CC De Factorij in Zaventem on September 12.

The festival also features choreographer Cherish Menzo’s dance interpretation of Frankenstein. Four Black dancers explore horror clichés behind transparent sheets, twisting their bodies into forms including a giant spider before scattering apart. Beneath the grotesque imagery, the performance asks who defines monstrosity, where stereotypes come from and how a largely white audience relates to Black performers in light of the colonial past.

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I had to restrain myself from storming onto the stage and exploring that spectacular playground myself.