hetpaleis / Sarah Vanhee

In 'the beach', theater maker Sarah Vanhee creates a performance with and by young people about sexuality, desire, and physicality. The beach is an inherently erotic environment: sun, sea, and (semi)naked bodies, exposed to the elements and the gaze of others. It is a place for relaxation, play, and seduction, filled with codes, scripts, and rituals. The popular holiday destination is also a popular social space, a (seemingly) democratic place.

For a fictional day, we follow how people come and go – in pairs, groups, or alone, with friends, family, or complete strangers. The atmosphere is disarming: everyone almost naked surrenders to the sand and waves. But the beach is also ruthless, as the hierarchy of the most attractive, the most muscular, the most popular still applies here. What fits within a dominant cultural framework thrives best here as well.

In 'the beach', teenagers of flesh and blood play the young characters, while all other characters are puppets. From hyper-realistic to enchantingly surreal: on this fascinating beach, there is a strange tension between calm and action, between public and intimate, beneath the sunburned skins.