Benjamin Verdonck

After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp with a degree in acting, Benjamin Verdonck begins developing a very personal body of work that brings together different forms of performing arts.Theatre of text, dance, musical theatre, theatre of objects, performances in theatre venues or outside, artistic installations, etc. This in turns allows his outlook on the world to be at once gentle and forceful, often critical but always deeply human. He goes from stage to stage, from the smallest spaces to the largest, presenting shows in which politics play a large part, but always preferring questions to indoctrination. His “weapons:” poetry and humour. A partner of the Toneelhuis in Antwerp and the KVS in Brussels, he has worked with Ivo van Hove, Johan Simons, and Arne Sierens, before working on creations taking place in the public area, such as Hirondelle/Dooi Vogeltje/The Great Swallow, for which he spent seven days in a nest on the façade of the Brussels administrative Centre, thirty-two meters above ground, from which he shouted at passersby. At the Festival d'Avignon, he took part in Nine Finger, with Alain Platel and Fumiyo Ikeda, and presented Wewilllivestorm.

Portrait of Benjamin Verdonck © portrait Iwan Van Vlierberghe, photo Benjamin Verdonck