AREN

Benjamin Verdonck
2019

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Script of the recent theatre performance Aren

“Realising an idea also always means losing a hundred other ideas, renouncing countless ways in which the same idea could take shape. With Aren, a theatre text full of unrealised ideas for a stage performance, theatre maker and visual artist Benjamin Verdonck tries to outwit that necessity. The text can be regarded as a manual, a political pamphlet and an involuntary biography of the artist.”

Evelyne Coussens, review of the text edition of Aren
‘Open source aan subversieve ideeën’ (Open source of subversive ideas) in De Reactor

Published by Bebuquin & Toneelhuis
Languages  NL, ENG
ISBN 9789075175769
Price 10,00 euro

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On 10 January 2019, Aren premiered in the Bourla
Theatre in Antwerp. The title refers to the gleaner
who walks behind the harvesters and picks up the
remaining gleanings on the field. There are two parts
to the show. In the first, I present found objects in
constantly changing arrangements. In the second part,
I read a list of unrealized ideas to the audience. This
book comprises the script of the second part.

On 10 January 2019, a large group of school kids
gathered in Brussels for the first time to express their
concern about the inevitable changes to the climate.
This event made my story of an unrealized idea for a
workshop with children rather special that evening. As
I write this now, the elections are behind us. Yet those
who were elected still show no sign that limiting this
catastrophe is in any way a priority.

Benjamin Verdonck, June 2019

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On sale in the Toneelhuis bookshop
or at an upcoming Aren performance