‘Memory, let all slip’

In 1914 the young men of the European nations marched to war in a state of euphoria – a war that no-one and everyone had wanted. Disillusionment and despair soon followed in the mud of the trenches. And yet that bitter cup of duty and fatalism was drained to the very last drop.
When the smoke cleared and the guns fell quiet, Europe had lost its illusions; Dada crept out from the trenches; and the construction of war graves, monuments and memories was begun.

Seven actors perform poetry and prose from 1914-1918. They represent seven languages, seven soldiers and seven nations or powers.
Two MCs recount the war in Dutch and French. What went on beforehand? What followed?

This multilingual, multimedia performance presents the Great War in word, image and music; it brought the twentieth century in with a bang and still casts its shadow today.
As the very last of the eye witnesses quietly breathe their last breath, these stories need to be told, before they are permanently relegated to the past.

With: Tunde Adefioye, Polina Akhmetzyanova, Isabelle Barth, Charlotte Van den Broeck, Edoardo Ripani, Elisabeth Salverda, Melike Tarhan, Luc Vandermaelen, Mélina Van Hoof, Anke Verschueren

With texts by: E.M. Remarque, L.F. Céline, Marguerite Yourcenar, W.H. Auden, Ernst Jünger, Wilfred Owen, Hugo Claus, Ivor Gurney, Vladimir Majakovski, Giuseppe Ungaretti, W.B. Yeats, Tristan Tzara, Herman De Coninck, M.C. Kuntay, Benno Barnard, Siegfried Sassoon, Harold Pinter, Suheir Hammad,...