CHRONIC, Tibau Beirnaert and Laurens Aneca — detheatermaker - BACK2BACK

Contemporary masculinity training, survival retreats, and wildman brotherhoods promise restoration through discipline, hierarchy, and toughness. They harken back to the knightly ideal: men as warriors who must prove themselves and control their emotions. In CHRONIC, a figure enters a commune inspired by Arthur’s Ronde Tafel. Jousting, sword fighting, and wearing armor initially seem to be part of that same ritual of hardening. But what if these rituals could mean something completely different? Instead of being hardened, the initiate is dismantled and reassembled according to laws that exist outside the ordinary world. What begins as a knightly quest thus becomes an investigation into physical care and control. How close are those two things to each other?