Varia: together, connected, shared

This March, we have several collaborations with Brussels-based organisations on the programme: from 9 to 12 March, we are co-presenting Adeline Rosenstein’s new work, *Laboratoire Poison*, with Le Rideau. To accompany this production, we are co-organising a discussion and a decolonial tour led by the Collectif des Mémoires Coloniales et la Lutte contre les Discriminations.

Together with the Kaaitheater and Klarafestival, we are hosting the final stages of the creation of PREY, the new production by Kris Verdonck, Annelies Van Parys and Ictus, which will have its world premiere on 25–26 March. 

These collaborations stem from a desire to apply the collective and collaborative practice of stage work across our institution. We champion a philosophy of mutual support and the pooling of strengths, experiences and practices that reaffirm everyone’s place on the Brussels and Belgian theatre scene. This is why we collaborate throughout the season with other institutions to work together, in a network and in common.

We share with Le Rideau, the Kaaitheater and Atelier 210 a worldview that drives us to offer a joint ‘Pay What You Can’ pricing policy, giving everyone the chance to access theatre.

Earlier in the season, we presented, alongside Les Tanneurs at their venue, the new work by Christophe Sermet, which Varia is co-producing. In May, we will host the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, an unmissable highlight of the May programme. Together with our neighbours at Atelier 210, we are joining forces for Habib Ben Tanfous’s debut production, with both venues contributing to the co-production and staging performances just three months apart.

We are also supporting the production of Ifeoma Fafunwa’s ECOUTE!, produced by the Théâtre de Namur, which will be restaged in Brussels and Namur with Belgian actresses, based on testimonies gathered in both cities. Together with Les Brigittines and Les Tanneurs, we have joined forces to organise a Focus Pro (5–7 October 2022) with the aim of providing the artists we wish to support with a solid foundation for their work.

In October 2022, Héloise Ravet’s production Outrage pour bonne fortune was part of the Théâtre National’s new Scènes Nouvelles festival, an annual event for audiences and professionals, both Belgian and international, to discover the best of multidisciplinary creation by emerging artists in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

Long live the philosophy of ‘co’ – creation, production, programming…!