Kaaitheater Presents its New Programme for the New Year

Kaaitheater continues to play its role as a crossroads, driven and determined: not of contamination, but of safe encounters between artists and audiences.

The programme we are announcing today includes the final performances at our home at Sainctelettesquare. At the end of June we will close the door behind us and major renovation works will start: the main auditorium will be renovated, the Kaaicafé and the foyer will get a complete makeover, and at the Akenkaai a second auditorium, rehearsal studios and a city balcony will be built. From 2025 onwards we will welcome audience and artists, on a completely new site! After the summer, Kaaitheater will begin a two-year nomadic existence, presenting our programme in various locations in Brussels.

But before that, we present this programme January>June 2022 with new voices and established values.

Partners and Artists

The bill includes Belgian premières by, for example, Markus Öhrn, tg STAN & de Roovers, Antoine Defoort, fieldworks and Cuqui Jerez and premières by Ahilan Ratnamohan, Tine Van Aerschot and David Weber-Krebs. We bring Kaaitheater co-productions of such artists as Khadija El Kharraz Alami, buren, Sarah Vanhee/bodies of knowledge, Alix Eynaudi, Kate McIntosh, Vera Tussing and Radouan Mriziga.

We dedicate 20% of our budget to other Brussels organisations. We give them a place in the programme and full artistic independence. In 2021 Citylab, For All Queens! and Mothers & Daughters were our guests, in the first months of 2022 we will work together with Moussem and Mophradat.

As part of the thematic programme line WE HEAR YOU(TH),we will continue to present the work of artists where young people take the word, giving us their view of the world and its rules. Kyoko Scholiers, Mohamed El Khatib and Action Zoo Humain listened to their experience. Their projects, intended for adults, invite us to listen to the voice of youngsters, let go of our fears and surrender to the wisdom of the youth.

With The Wonders of Multilingualism Kaaitheater and Passa Porta are launching a series of programmes on multilingualism. In February, 60 people who deal with multilingualism in their daily, professional life or artistic practice will come together. They will provide the topics for the upcoming series. 

Together with VUB Crosstalks , we will continue the series of More-Than-Human-Encounters, with an evening on Hydrofeminisms in January.

To accompany the performance Domestic Violence by Markus Öhrn, Kaaitheater is organizing the first edition of FOOTNOTES: an extended context programme around performances with social resonance, which may comprise talks, workshops, exhibitions, an information showcase, etc. For this first occasion, we work together with RoSa vzw and both audience members and experts take the lead in a series of conversations about domestic violence, and how the performance makes this complex issue visible.

You can find the programme overview for dance, theatre, performance and talks here. 

Pay What You Can

In May 2021, we threw out the traditional pricing system and experimented with a Pay what you can pricing policy. From now on, visitors can choose from a range of prizes with every ticket purchase. Does paying less make visiting us easier? Then they are free to choose that. Those who can afford higher ticket prices help ensure that others can pay less. This system, based on trust and the sharing of financial strength, will be continued from January to June.

Indeed, the past six months have shown that this formula is a success. In combination with the programme, it ensured that we reached 30% of new audiences , as well as a high percentage of young audiences (45% were under 35) and often had a full house.
​Audience research showed that PWYC encourages visitors to come more often, to bring more people and to pick young or unknown artists. For example, they said that the way ‘Pay What You Can’ invites them to combine different tariffs within their company, or to switch tariffs according to their financial situation at the time is a real advantage.

Exit Theatre

For nearly thirty years, Kaaitheater has filled the building on the Sainctelettesquare with visions, movements and ideas. Generations of artists and spectators have stepped through the doors of this iconic building. But in six months the curtain falls.
​Before the renovation work starts, we leave the building with a bang. By putting on Exit Theatre - How To Say Goodbye in Many Ways during the last weekend of June, we say goodbye to the 'big Kaai' as we know it. The programme for this final weekend will be announced later. We will pay tribute to the past, and open the door to the future, in many different ways.

Elles vivent by Antoine Defoort, The Silencing by David Weber-Krebs, Listen here: this cavern by Daniel Linehan/HIATUS &To speak light pours out by Kate McIntosh, The Big BOK Multiplication by Sarah Vanhee & the More-than-human Encounters series are co-funded by ACT & the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union