Abattoir Fermé - Galapagos

Welcome to the bowels of an old hotel, where the ground floor stinks and there is loud praying at night. Four guests get lost there in a hinterland of conspiracy theories and end-time scenarios, of sexual neuroses, identity crises, and an excess of information. Who am I? What is ‘normal’? Which reality is ‘real’? If the CIA brainwashes people and clones and artificial intelligence are no longer science fiction, what certainties remain? At the beginning of the new millennium – long before conspiracy thinkers went mainstream or ‘gender’ became, let's say, a thing – Abattoir Fermé created ‘Galapagos’, a piece of ‘existential horror theater’ that raged like a storm through the Flemish stage landscape. Almost 25 years later, Abattoir Fermé resumes this penetrating classic about themes that have only become more urgent since then. ‘Galapagos’ takes you to ‘the world behind the world’: a hinterland inspired by dissident scientists, conspiracy theories, counterculture artists, apocalyptic scenarios, and the dark corners of the internet. Recognizable, disruptive, moving, hilarious, and unforgettably played by two top-class actors. ‘This hotel is weird. There are too many dark corridors and too few lamps that still work. Here and there it stinks. I think I am the only one staying here. Except for him of course. He on the first and I on the third. In every room lies a bible. And when I walk through the corridors at night, I hear praying. This hotel is gigantic and I am only so small.’ Abattoir Fermé is, meanwhile already more than 25 years, one of Flanders' most famous theater groups: bold and fearless, instantly recognizable and eternally unique. Their dark-comic work is often inspired by ‘the world behind the world’: the secrets of our culture, the roots of our collective fears, and the hidden fantasies and rituals of this time. Abattoir also regularly makes trips outside the theater with, among other things, films, exhibitions, publications, video clips, etc. ‘An unbridled phantasm that reminds of paintings by Bosch, Breughel, and Ensor.’ - selection Theaterfestival ‘Abattoir Fermé signs for beauty that only makes itself known amidst the dirt and uncertainty. Between the fear and the mild perversion, like a flower on a dung heap.’ - De Standaard, 2004 From and by: Stef Lernous (text, direction, image) | Steve Geerts, Tine Van den Wyngaert (acting) | Aaron Bruyninckx (technique) | Abattoir Fermé, Art center nona (production) | Stef Lernous (image) With the support of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap and city of Mechelen. www.abattoirferme.be