Mantike - Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe/ Toneelhuis

Mantikê tékhnê is the name the ancient Greeks gave to the art of predicting, the primal technique of seeing omens in the flight of birds, in the position of trees and the straying of bees. That is how they read their fate. Today we swallow ready-made futures and ruminate on prefab dreams of a world that sells itself. Thoughts that are not our own, we repeat. A past that has been forced upon us, a nostalgia that we are talked into. The philosopher Walter Benjamin is of the opinion that humanity, despite centuries of disaster, has the duty to enter and shape an as yet unknown and perhaps even ominous future. With his parable of ‘The Angel of History’, he pleads for an ode to life, despite everything. In ‘Mantike’, Louise Van den Eede finds that metaphor back in the story about Calypso, the loneliest goddess in Greek mythology. In how the banished nymph shapes her future, how she reinterprets her curse and loss by making a raft with crushed broken fragments. Thus Calypso helps her own lover, Odysseus, to leave her for good. Thus she shapes her future loss herself. ‘Mantike’ is an invitation to discover how we can enter an unwritten future together. No prophecy, no doom-mongering, but an invitation to let go of what holds us back. Building a future that has not been chewed over for us, but that we think up ourselves. This exploding, visual, freshly written text performance puts everything on the line to reinvent our odyssey towards the future. What do we hold on to, what perishes and what must we lovingly let go? The press about ‘Mantike’: “Thanks to the ingenious text of Louise Van den Eede – every word blooms from the previous one – and the sparkling acting of Marjan De Schutter, Mantike is the softest and craziest cry of despair and encouragement in and about our world.” (Els Van Steenberghe, Knack Focus) Schouwburg Kortrijk is a proud UiTPAS partner. Save UiTPAS points during the performance. Are you entitled to a ticket at an increased allowance? Keep your UiTPAS at hand and book your ticket online or by phone at 056 23 98 55. You can also visit our ticket counter. Be sure to bring your UiTPAS with you.