by Peter Verhelst –– Directed by: Peter Verhelst –– Production: NTGent (Belgium)
Sound: Kreg –– With: Oscar Van Rompay
Performance in French, with German, Romanian and English.
In addition to his life as an actor in Belgium, The NTGent actor Oscar Van Rompay leads a second life in Kenya, where he runs a commercial tree plantation. Half the year he lives in Europe, and the rest in Africa. As an actor he has previously played the part of a Moslim terrorist, a financial analyst, a child, a farmer and a murderer. In the autobiographical monologue Africa he plays his most difficult part so far: himself. A Western entrepreneur in Kenya; a white man who tries in vain to become one with his black fellow men. Africa is a play about the dark side of liberal thinking. And, by extension, the universal story of someone who is trying to find their place in a society that is alien to them. Torn by desire and fear, hoping for the ideal love. But the play is also a performance about theatre: Verhelst creates a sublime, imagined world, and at the same time shows its limitations.
“A performance that turns your way of thinking upside down, and that doesn't happen very often.” (Zone 02, Belgium)