A performance about sexuality, desire and corporality, with and by youngsters

The beach : one of the most visited holiday destinations, a popular social space and a place for games, relaxation, temptation, eroticism and meeting – full of codes, scripts and rituals. And at the same time an environment of (half) naked bodies where you are not only exposed to the sun but also to other people's looks. On the beach there is a strange tension between rest and action, between the public and the intimate. Everyone is equal before the laws of the sea, the sand and the waves, but at the same time there is a hierarchy of the most handsome, the thinnest, the most muscular, the most popular, especially among youngsters.

We follow thirteen young performers for a day at the beach, to be there for a short or a long time. They pass in duos, groups or alone, with friends, family or strangers. The script for the performance was made by youngsters. For months they weekly got together at hetpaleis for conversations with each other, with friends and peers. The result is a text that is both vulnerable and humorous.

The Beach is an invitation to get to know the young performers better. What is hiding under their lightly sunburnt skin ?

“With The Beach we certainly don't want to impose an opinion but show that everybody has his own thoughts, experiences or fantasies around desire and intimacy”

Rachel, one of the youngsters who participated.

Sarah Vanhee is an internationally renowned artist, performer and author. She is known for her transdisciplinary and cross sectoral work and for inventing always new and original forms of art. Her projects and works are an instrument to put neglected stories and non-dominant voices in the forefront. Therefore she often steps outside the walls of the theatre. Thus she already worked in prisons, private living rooms, open fields, parks, libraries, in meeting rooms of companies etc. Vanhee believes that art belongs to everybody and that everybody can be an artist. She was a guest at the NEXT festival before with Oblivion (a performance around the collected garbage of one year).

Aftertalk

22.11 - After the performance