“Seducing another man’s wife is allowed when in danger of perishing from love for her.”
(from the Kamasutra)

We. We don’t want fierce love, we don’t  demand blood, we don’t call out for vengeance.
Not any longer.
We are broad-minded, kind-hearted, perfectly informed, clear-sighted and congenial.
We are free, free at last, free at last! Delivered from the yoke of our instincts.
Damn, here comes Lust! Go away, Lust!
Aargh, there’s Passion! You lecherous hussy! You troublemaker! Leave us alone!
We’ve only just managed to get this well-balanced.
We’re headed in the right direction.
It’s a one-way street, this evolution, so it should be the right direction, don’t you think?
We’re geared up for all kinds of levity, attuned to everyone’s moods.
Yes! We’re free. Liberated, guys! And girls. Ahem.

We cherish choices, as submissive as rulers.
And if Lust and Passion should overpower us after all, everyone will understand.
Yep! Everyone.

We’re splendid creatures.
(They all laugh. Oh, such elegant mammals!)

A piece for middle-aged lechers with one young boy (who’ll hopefully die at the end, the oaf!)

“I think I have avoided you from a kind of reluctance to meet my double. (…) Your determinism as well as your scepticism—what people call pessimism—your preoccupation with the truths of the unconscious and of the instinctual drives in man, your dissection of the cultural conventions of our society, the dwellings of your thoughts on the polarity of love and death; all this moves me with an uncanny feeling of familiarity. (…) So I have formed the impression that you know through intuition—or rather from detailed self-observation—everything that I have discovered by laborious work on other people.”  (From a letter from Sigmund Freud to Arthur Schnitzler, 1922)

In Dutch

text ‘The vast domain’ by Arthur Schnitzler
by and with Koen De Graeve, Jolente De Keersmaeker, Damiaan De Schrijver, Sara De Roo, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Stijn Van Opstal and Geert Van Rampelberg

set design STAN, Olympique Dramatique and Matthias De Koning
lighting design Thomas Walgrave
canvas painting Tom Liekens
costumes Inge Büscher , assistant Filip Eyckmans
music Frank Vercruyssen
production and technique Toneelhuis and tg STAN

premiere 24 October 2013, Toneelhuis, Antwerp

2013

october

Thu 24.10.13 20:00
Toneelhuis
Antwerpen

Wed 30.10.13 20:00
Toneelhuis
Antwerpen

november

Sun 03.11.13 15:00
Toneelhuis
Antwerpen

Fri 08.11.13 20:30
Toneelschuur
Haarlem

Sat 09.11.13 20:30
Toneelschuur
Haarlem

Mon 11.11.13 20:00
CC Zwaneberg
Heist-op-den-Berg

Wed 13.11.13 20:00
CC Hasselt
Hasselt

Fri 15.11.13 20:00
CC De Kollebloem
Puurs

Sat 16.11.13 20:15
CC Muze
Heusden-Zolder

Mon 18.11.13 14:00
Bronks
Bruxelles

Wed 20.11.13 20:15
Cultuurhuis de Warande
Turnhout

Thu 21.11.13 20:00
NTGent
Gent

Sat 23.11.13 20:15
Stadsschouwburg
Mechelen

december

Tue 03.12.13 20:30
CC Diest
Diest

Wed 04.12.13 20:30
De Velinx
Tongeren-Borgloon

Fri 06.12.13 20:30
Kaaitheater
Bruxelles

Sat 07.12.13 20:30
Kaaitheater
Bruxelles

Sun 08.12.13 15:00
Kaaitheater
Bruxelles

Tue 10.12.13 20:00
Schouwburg
Sint-Niklaas

Wed 11.12.13 20:00
Schouwburg
Sint-Niklaas

Thu 12.12.13 20:00
Schouwburg
Leuven

Fri 13.12.13 20:00
Schouwburg
Leuven

Sat 14.12.13 20:00
Schouwburg
Leuven

Tue 17.12.13 20:00
CC Het Gasthuis
Aarschot

Wed 18.12.13 20:15
Schouwburg Kortrijk
Kortrijk

Fri 20.12.13 20:00
CC Scharpoord
Knokke-Heist

Sat 21.12.13 20:00
De Grote Post
Oostende