Mantike

Toneelhuis / Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe

What if you could predict your own future?

In Mantike, theatre maker Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe explores how we can build a future together. Inspired by the Greek myth of Calypso and the philosophy of Walter Benjamin, he creates a visual and poetic performance about letting go, saying goodbye and starting over. About finding your own story in a world full of ready-made dreams. Mantike is an ode to what passes — and to what remains. An invitation to shape what comes next.

Run time 75 minutes
Genre Theatre
Language Dutch
Dutch and English surtitles

Dutch opening night Sat, May 3

Mantike

How do we escape everything that has been imposed on us? Stories, images and expectations that keep us trapped?

In Mantike, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe creates a magical, electric world where future-thinking takes centre stage.

Mantikê tékhnê is the name that the ancient Greeks gave to the art of divination, the age-old technique of seeing omens in the migration of birds, the condition of trees and the disappearance of bees. This was how they read their fate. Mantike advocates for multiple perspectives and takes up the fight against resignation. Author Louise van den Eede is in charge of the script for this production. Instead of predicting doom or promoting conspiracy theories, the production fosters innovative ideas for a brighter future.

-|-Boom! Everything seems to be heading towards doom. Bloom! Yet visible: a radiant focal point on the horizon. Everything may blow away now. Marjan De Schutter storms onto the stage like a whirlwind in various forms. There is only one last link between dying bees and our fate. Mantike Bloom Boom.

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe's productions always start from a deserted landscape. In Mantike, that landscape carries an electrically charged atmosphere. Meirhaeghe frequently compares it to the familiar moment preceding a storm, where cows cluster under a tree, the sky shifts hues, and the initial gust of wind stirs. What actions does humanity take in that setting?
 
Mantike serves as a hopeful warning. Predictions. Evocative explosions. Vital splashes. Just in time, the end time is avoided. Prrrrrt!

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe (1995) is a theatre maker, performer and countertenor. His work merges classical music, pop, performance and visual art into an idiosyncratic, new theatrical language. His shows often feel like contemporary rituals: intimate yet theatrical, fragile yet exuberant.

Rather than breaking with tradition, Meirhaeghe looks for ways in which past and future can enter into dialogue. For him, theatre is a space where old stories can start to resonate anew.

“I’d rather create a dialogue between past and present than simply burn everything down.”

In Mantike, he continues that search: how can we shape the future ourselves — without falling into doom thinking or cynicism?

Credits

direction Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe 
script Louise Van den Eede   
performance Marjan De Schutter  
set Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe  
production Toneelhuis 
with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government