Rustoord Evening programme
After bringing the complexity of contemporary farming life to the stage with the much-praised Boerenpsalm in 2021, theatre makers Martha Balthazar, Jana De Kockere, Barbara T’Jonck, and Mats Vandroogenbroeck now turn their focus to elderly care. How do we grow old in Belgium today, and how long can we postpone thinking about it?
The hallway is long. The smell of mashed potatoes and disinfectant lingers in the air. Dozens of televisions blare in unison. The slow movements of the residents stand in stark contrast to the hurried pace of the staff. Is this a playground for a second youth, or the landscape of our collective future?
Old age never comes alone. It comes with remembering and forgetting. With pride and fear. With fellow travelers and loneliness. Today, it also comes with waiting lists, inflation adjustments, shareholders, staff shortages, and a lot of medication. And it comes with time: those who grow old enough can’t escape it.
Rustoord is documentary theatre about elderly care today. Through interviews with older adults, caregivers, gerontologists, politicians, investors, and more, the makers explore the “why” behind the endless corridors of care homes, the bittersweet taste of centrally organized care policy within a neoliberal framework, and the tension between care, freedom, and discipline. Four actors from different generations embody this collage of perspectives. Rather than providing answers, Rustoord offers a glimpse into the complex knot that elderly care has become.
Above all, this performance is a coming-of-age: an exercise in imagining what it might mean to grow old—if only we weren’t so afraid of it.
On stage, Mats Vandroogenbroeck and Barbara T’Jonck perform alongside Mieke Verdin and Mark Verstraete, two heavyweights from another generation. Mieke and Mark are no strangers to KVS. In fact, Mieke was part of the artistic team for ten years, and Mark Verstraete appeared in Gregoria (2011) and Odysseus. A wanderer comes home. (2017).
VERBATIM THEATRE
During the creative process of Rustoord, Martha, Jana, Barbara, and Mats engaged in conversations with elderly people and with individuals across all levels of the care sector: caregivers, nursing home directors, policymakers, and more. These conversations were meticulously recorded using audio equipment, resulting in hours of raw material. This audio was carefully sifted through and ultimately shaped into a collage/montage.
On stage, the creators apply the verbatim theatre method: actors wear headphones through which they hear the exact words of the interviewees, and then repeat them live. They reproduce the original speech with great precision. Verbatim theatre is often seen as a hybrid form—part documentary, part time capsule, and part artistic performance. The use of this method highlights the layered methodology of the piece. It goes beyond literal quotation. There's room for artistic interpretation, allowing the viewer to consciously oscillate between reality and theatricality.
Verbatim theatre emerged mainly in the second half of the 20th century within experimental theatre. The genre gained popularity in the UK and the United States during the 1960s and 70s, when theatre makers began to use interviews and testimonies as the foundation of their work.
Mieke Verdin
Mieke Verdin studied art history at the Catholic University of Leuven and drama at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. She was part of Jan De Corte’s company and collaborated with, among others, Guy Dermul and Josse De Pauw. In 1985, she joined the theatre company Dito Dito and also worked with TG Stan. From 2006 to 2016, she was an actress and member of the artistic team at KVS, where she collaborated with Raven Ruëll, Johan Dehollander, Ruud Gielens, and Olympique Dramatique. She is active in both the performing arts and in film and television.
Mark Verstraete
Mark Verstraete (1948) earned a degree in painting at Sint-Lukas Brussels before studying acting at the Conservatory in Ghent. He has over 34 years of experience as an actor with various companies in Flanders and the Netherlands (NNT), including Arca, Theater Antigone, Het Toneelhuis, Het Paleis, KVS, and NTG. Verstraete has appeared in numerous TV series and films, and is widely known to the public for his role as Jef in De Kotmadam, a role he has played continuously since 1991. Together with Bart Meuleman and Herwig Illegems, he co-founded the theatre group De Zweep (1988–2003). He has also taught acting at the Studio Herman Teirlinck’s cabaret department and later at the Conservatory in Antwerp.
Mats Vandroogenbroeck
Mats Vandroogenbroeck (1993) is an actor, theatre maker, and writer. He studied history at Ghent University and drama at KASK. Mats has worked with the Kopergietery, Studio ORKA, Blauwhuis, Malpertuis, Compagnie de Koe, and the artist collective ZUIDPARK. Together with Jonas Baeke, he created the children’s theatre performance Bambiraptor (selected for the TheaterFestival 2022) and Infinity Forever. In addition to acting, Mats maintains an artistic and critical writing practice. He is an editor for the cultural-critical magazine rekto:verso and writes texts for Krapp, his theatre collective with Nona Demey Gallagher and Timo Sterckx. With his absurdist text for Through the Looking-Glass (and what we Found There), Krapp won the SABAM Young Playwriting Prize at Theater aan Zee in 2019. Mats’ fascination with the occult often appears in his theatre work, including in De Duivels / Les Diables, which Krapp created at KVS in 2023.
Jana De Kockere
Jana De Kockere (1994) graduated in 2021 as a theatre maker with Goblins at KASK and also completed a PhD in philosophy at Ghent University. She searches for the truth about truth, both in books and on stage. In 2020, she performed in Mount Average by Julian Hetzel. In 2022, she appeared in Ten Oorlog by Camping Sunset, a refreshing, contemporary remake of the Shakespeare marathon by Luk Perceval and Tom Lanoye. In 2024, she performed in Burn Glass Gate, for which she also served as dramaturg. She is also an editor at rekto:verso.
Martha Balthazar
Martha Balthazar (°1997) is a theatre maker and writer. She graduated in 2021 from the Drama program at KASK in Ghent, with Boerenpsalm, a modern rural drama based on research into the agricultural sector. She also worked as a choreographer for Birds, a co-production with Seppe Baeyens and Yassin Mrabtifi, in which a large group of performers reflected the diversity of the city. Martha is part of the dance community vzw Leon, which creates participatory performances in Brussels centered on encounter and connection. She also worked as a theatre maker with young people at Victoria Deluxe, creating the performance onze mensen. In 2022, Martha took on the local direction of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction, a Swiss play about the climate crisis that refuses to tour. In 2023, she co-founded the organization forever stew with Barbara T’Jonck. Martha won the 2020 Emile Zola Prize from Sampol magazine and is a columnist for Knack.
Barbara T’Jonck
Barbara T’Jonck is a theatre maker, facilitator, and artistic researcher. She has collaborated with LOD Muziektheater, KVS, KAAP, wpZimmer, Kunstenplatform Plan B, and Beeldensmederij De Maan, among others. In 2019, she co-founded the artist-run organization Platform In De Maak. In 2021, she presented her adaptation of Antigone at KVS. In 2023, she co-founded forever stew with Martha Balthazar. Her IN SITU performance T-2124 was reworked in 2024 for Theater Aan Zee, and within the context of Veldwerk III at Plan B, she researches the relationship between artistic creation and collective rural life.