• download the jury report (NL)

Usually actors play characters. Last season, we saw a surprising number of characters who turned out to be actors: actors at audition, actors in rehearsal, actors in the lodge or even just in a show in which then all sorts of things derail or scenes have to be redone over and over again. Funny, for sure. Sometimes even delightfully exuberant. But somewhere also a little sad. Surprisingly often those actors played turned out to be neurotic cases with a lot of doubts, whether or not tyrannized by a toxic or just-tormented director who has lost their way too. Crazy right? Elektra Unbound by Luanda Casella at NTGent, Diaree is mijn lievelingskleur by Theater Artemis and Studio Julian Hetzel, Opening Night by De HOE and so many other performances between May 2023 and April 2024: they pulled open the curtains with sardonic pleasure. What does it say about theater that it so ironically portrays itself as a world of abuse, loneliness, evidence-driven performance? What is it about theater that it so often becomes the metaphor of itself?

[Read more in the full jury report. Only available in Dutch]