Nine years after the premiere of their internationally acclaimed stage hit Mission, the author David Van Reybrouck, actor and theatre-maker Bruno Vanden Broecke and director Raven Ruëll will be working together once again.

Following the missionary in Mission, in this new monologue David Van Reybrouck gives a soldier the chance to speak. To this end he delves into a forgotten episode in recent history, Belgium’s large-scale military intervention in Somalia in 1992. Van Reybrouck has been ploughing through archives and publications and has interviewed parachute commandos, both officers and men, who took part in the mission.

Para will be neither an indictment nor a panegyric, but will rather examine the complex tragedy of ‘international peace operations’. It is a story of idealism and impotence, noble aims and shady practices.

At the Dutch Theatre Festival 2018 Bruno Vanden Broecke was awarded the Louis d'Or for his performance From the jury report: “In Para, Bruno Vanden Broecke appears to be an actor who becomes his character. He starts the performance timid and clumsy, slowly grabbing the audience mercilessly by the throat.”

Bruno Vanden Broecke is the king of the monologue. This is not just a play, it is an event of national importance: an exercise in recollection and empathy.

De Standaard ****