Spinoza

PHILOSOPHER CAROUSEL Over the past ten years, philosopher and theater maker Stefaan Van Brabandt has written and directed five plays about great thinkers. He has turned their tragicomic lives and inspiring ideas into accessible, sparkling theater. Philosophers of flesh and blood, told in a language that sticks. Theater that makes you laugh, moves you, and makes you think. In April-May 2027, he will revive his entire philosophy cycle with the original cast, in five Flemish cities simultaneously. Also in and around Brussels. Every week, the performances rotate between cities, so that each philosopher visits all five: a carousel of thinkers. "Nothing human is alien to me." Speaking is the most famous philosopher from the Netherlands: SPINOZA, played by Dutch actor Han Kerckhoffs. Han received rave reviews in our country for his role in the NTG production 'Who's Afraid' by Tom Lanoye, in which he starred alongside his wife Els Dottermans. Freedom, reasonableness, and joy—that is what Spinoza is all about. In his time, he was banished because of his radical ideas about faith, freedom, and democracy; for centuries, his books were even banned throughout Europe. And yet, he is one of the most influential thinkers in history. Han Kerckhoffs plays Spinoza, but also enters into a dialogue with his own thinking as himself. What does his philosophy mean to us today? How does he see Spinoza God? What does he think about free will? And above all: how can we achieve a joyful life according to him? Spinoza as a human of flesh and blood, tossed back and forth between loneliness, freedom, struggle, and resistance. He shows that there can be no gap between conviction and one's own life, between thinking and practical wisdom, between ideals and political realism. Concept and direction Stefaan Van Brabandt | Spel Han Kerckhoffs | Dramaturgie Wannes Gyselinck | Artistic advice Piet Menu | Productie Het Zuidelijk Toneel and De Verwondering