Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe & The Unrequired Love – Contratenor, performer and director Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe and producer Laurens Mariën join forces for an electronic performance-concert that balances between a spectacle and a love ritual. Bipolar genres and atmospheres, operatic dada blues punk-pop, a high-pitched voice, dark beats and theatricality make up the spring of this grand intimate spectacle. Together with dancer Hanako Hayakawa and writer Louise van den Eede, they cherish hope for a different society; where people find each other around poppy fires, where spectacles have a liberating primal force, where all possible forms of love constantly change costumes.
Artists have a collective need to create a place of reflection, whether in concert or theatre, where people can gather around a spectacle that aims to encourage them to reflect and change. The ritual spectacle they propose aims to re-enchant the disenchanted world. They do this by combining personal texts, strange sounds and images into a bizarre futuristic love ritual. Spectacles aims to pit old civilisations against new ones and shake the foundations of our current culture. In this way, they hope to reconnect with nature and their loved ones in the future, with humour, inspiration and dangerous intimacy. The ritual form of this concert is important for understanding and/or transcending the meaning n of a changeable concept like ‘love’.
Concept and performance: Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe
Concept, composition and performance: Laurens Mariën
Concept and dramaturgy: Louise van den Eede
Dance and performance: Hanako Hayakawa
Costumes: Paule Josephe
Mix: Jasper Segers
Musicians recording: Mattias De Craene, Lander Gyselinck, David Numwam, Jasper Segers
Light: Lies Van Loock
Sound: Jo Heijens
Production manager: Ruth Sarens
Co-production: Ancienne Belgique, Muziektheater Transparant, Vooruit, STUK, De Studio, Pilar, Het Nationale Theater Den Haag, C-TAKT
Diffusion: ART HAPPENS
| Date | Performance | City Country | Organisation/Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21.07.2023 | Spectacles | Vienna (at) | ImPulsTanz |
| 14.06.2023 | Spectacles | Ljubljana (si) | Spider Festival |
| 17.02.2023 | Spectacles | Berlin (de) | Komische Oper Berlin |
| 06.10.2022 | Spectacles | Tongeren (be) | De Velinx |
| 18.03.2022 | Spectacles | Antwerp (be) | Trix |
| 25.02.2022 | Spectacles | Mechelen (be) | Kunstencentrum nona |
| 19.02.2022 | Spectacles | Waregem (be) | CC De Schakel |
| 15.02.2022 | Spectacles | Ghent (be) | Handelsbeurs |
| 05.02.2022 | Spectacles | Tielt (be) | Theater Malpertuis |
| 13.11.2021 | Spectacles | Kortrijk (be) | NEXT |
| 07.10.2021 | Spectacles | Brussels (be) | Pilar |
| 10.09.2021 | Spectacles | The Hague (nl) | Rewire |
| 09.09.2021 | Spectacles | Brussels (be) | AB |
| 29.08.2021 | Spectacles | Ghent (be) | Bijloke Wonderland |
| 28.08.2021 | Spectacles | Ghent (be) | Bijloke Wonderland |
| 10.06.2021 | Spectacles | Leuven (be) | Kunstencentrum STUK |