Rexit!
A defining moment, a tragic misunderstanding, or two fundamentally irreconcilable views on how the country should position itself towards the Germans.
They haven’t seen each other for five years, Leopold III and his minister of foreign affairs Paul-Henri Spaak, not since that night at the start of the war. The government fled the country, the king stayed. For five long years of occupation, it has been grating, seething, ripening, the so-called ‘tragic misunderstanding’ between them.
Run time tba
Genre Theatre
Language Dutch
Rexit!
May 1940, the German victory seems inevitable. Once the army is defeated, the government and the king find themselves at odds over the political course to follow While the government flees, the king remains. This conflict will persist throughout the entire occupation, causing tension and evolving over time. Particularly intense is the animosity between Leopold and his foreign minister Paul-Henri Spaak, who had been close peers before the war and has since played a significant role in global politics. . It will take a decade for their conflict to be resolved, not through compromise, but via a referendum that forces every Belgian citizen to take a side, pushing the country to the brink of civil war.
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The clash between Spaak and Leopold is not just a confrontation between two figures who made different choices during the war: it’s a clash of two different personalities with opposing world views. The conflict is the Big Bang that our current democracy was born from.
After Unsung, a razor-sharp dissection of the political state, Vincent Stuer (political spokesman and speechwriter) writes another play, together with Valentijn Dhaenens and Bruno Vanden Broecke. Together they get under the skin of the historical figures of Spaak and Leopold III.
Credits
direction and performance Bruno Vanden Broecke en Valentijn Dhaenens
text Valentijn Dhaenens, Vincent Stuer en Bruno Vanden Broecke
concept Vincent Stuer
costume design and scenography Chloé Wasselin-Dandre
production manager Ella De Gregoriis
stage manager Lieven Symaeys
lightning design Geert Drobe
composition and sound design Patrick Van Neck
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dramaturgy Dina Dooreman
surtitling Inge Floré
translation Trevor Perri (NL > EN) en Anne Vanderschueren (NL > FR)
special thanks to Els De Witte, Mark Eyskens en Rik Van Cauwelaert
with the support of Taxshelter of the Belgium Federal Government via BNPPFFF
production KVS
coproduction Perpodium
