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7:00 PM

Humour in contemporary theatre

Panel discussion|Bucket List

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Bucket List Ivan Kravtsov

Bucket List Ivan Kravtsov

What role does humour play in contemporary theatre during turbulent times?

Humour is much more than just entertainment. It functions as a mirror of social tensions and serves both as a means of resistance and as a weapon of division. Through political satire, Carnivalesque or everyday derision, it brings to light the schisms in our societies and at the same time, offers ways to either overcome or intensify them.

Yael Ronen is especially renowned for plays that use dark humour in the context of historical conflicts, such as the darkly satirical play Point of No Return (Munich Kammerspiele, 2016). As part of the presentation of Bucket List, Goethe-Institut Brussels and Théâtre de Liège are inviting leading international theatre experts to a conversation to explore the role of humour in contemporary theatre.

How does humour relate to social tensions, and how does it create connections or, conversely, how does it exclude and unsettle? Using contemporary examples and creative practices, panellists will discuss the psychological complexity and dark paradox of humour on stage and the aesthetic (and productive) form of the tension between humour and trauma.
 

A panel with:

Martín Valdés-Stauber has been a dramaturge at the Schaubühne Berlin since 2023, where he guided the creation of the play Bucket List. From 2017 to 2023, he was a dramaturge on the artistic direction team at the Munich Kammerspiele, where he worked with Rabih Mroué, Philippe Quesne, Rimini Protokoll (Stefan Kaegi), Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Marco Layera and Milo Rau. Since 2018, as part of the long-term project SCHICKSALE, he has been researching the biographies of employees of the Kammerspiele who were persecuted under the Nazi regime.
 

WANG Jing is a playwright, translator, theatrical producer and programmer, PhD in theatre studies (Sorbonne Nouvelle University) and director and founder of the Association Hybridités France-Chine. She is a lecturer at Paris Nanterre University and the University of Artois as well as a visiting professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. Since 2011, she has been working between France and China in the performing arts and has brought about numerous projects between the two countries.
 

Michael De Cock is a writer, director, and actor. Since 2017, he has been the artistic director of KVS. De Cock’s bibliography currently includes around twenty titles, which have also found success on the international book market and have received numerous awards. In 2024, he published the book Only Imagination Can Save Us, a passionate plea for culture in our democracy. For the past ten years, he has also focused on writing screenplays.
Together with Carme Portaceli he's currently creating a new production about the ‘forgotten’ and ‘erased’ woman, Mary Magdalene. It will premiere in Barcelona in 2026.
 

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