La Fête
Anne-Cécile Vandalem and Joëlle Sambi draw on a real event that deeply marked Dutch-speaking Belgium: the death of Sanda Dia in December 2018, following an initiation ritual within an elitist student fraternity, Reuzegom.
Starting from this tragedy and the trial of the members of the student fraternity, their creative team undertakes a long-term exploration of the mechanisms that protect elites, the denial of racism, and the reproduction of social privilege.
Surrounded by their collaborators, they imagine a fiction born of the impossible: a meeting between the victim’s family and the families of two of the convicted men, accompanied by a filmmaker. What was intended as a gesture of symbolic reparation turns into a closed-door confrontation in which the fault lines of a society marked by guilt, erasure, and the violence of inherited legacies are laid bare.
Oscillating between investigation and mise en abyme, LA FÊTE questions the power of storytelling: who speaks, on whose behalf, and at what cost? Theatre becomes a space for experimentation, where reality and fiction rub against each other, where silenced narratives can emerge without any promise of consolation or forgiveness. At the crossroads of the political and the intimate, the play seeks to make visible the shadowy zones left by the handling of this story—those unresolved areas that theatre brings into the open.
Anne-Cécile Vandalem
Joëlle Sambi
François Ebouele
Habib Ben Tanfous
Oscar Van Rompay
Anne-Pascale Clairembourg
Arne De Tremerie
Anne-Cécile Vandalem
Alex Tambu
Federico D'Ambrosio
Eva-Maria Bertschy
François Makanga
Joëlle Sambi
Pauline Ringeade
Yasmine Deroui
Astrid Akay
Hikmat Vanthomme
Ruimtevaarders
Laurence Hermant
Amélie Géhin
Vincent Pinckaers
Federico D'Ambrosio
Alex Tambu
Pierre Kissling
Antoine Bourgain
Kenza Benbouchta
Yorrick Detroy
Damien Arrii
Giuliana Renzi
Yorrick Detroy
Damien Arrii
Hugues Girard
Ludovic John
Olivier Debondt
Pam Martin
Violette Grandjean
Maïa Anastasiou
Corentin Christiaens
Hadrien Jeangette
Léa Vandooren
Antoine Bourgain
Stefano Serra
Julien Bernard
Samira Benali
Teo Becher
Christophe Engels
Das Fräulein (Kompanie) - Lila Pérès (Head of administration and finance), Daria Bubalo (Head of production), Jill De Muelenaere (Head of development, touring and communication), Rabab Khairy (production and administration coordinator), Aurélie Curti (touring and production coordinator)
Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Nanterre-Amandiers — Centre dramatique national, Théâtre de Liège, Théâtre de Namur, Maison de la Culture de Tournai, Théâtre des Célestins à Lyon, les Théâtres de la Ville du Luxembourg, Théâtre de la Cité à Toulouse, Ruhrfestspiele, Malraux scène nationale Chambéry Savoie, Maison de la Culture de Bourges – Scène nationale, La Coop asbl & Shelter Prod
Taxhselter.be, ING, tax-shelter du gouvernement fédéral belge, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service théâtre, Joëlle Sambi est représentée par L’ARCHE – agence théâtrale. www.arche-editeur.com
Workshop of Théâtre de Liège [BE]
Costume workshop of Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles [BE]
Seydou Devel, Marie Steenkist, Ousmane Dia, Ferre Vervoort, Peter Huyberechts, Douglas DeConinck, Elise Van Bocxlaer, Bart Willocx, Luc De Cleir, Serge Gutwirth, Arnaud Timmermans, Karel Van Haesebrouck, Marc Neve, Aicha Cissé, Abigail Abraham, Viggo Ebouele, Nour Ben Tanfous Laval, Billie Sage, Marilou Kissling, Juliette Challet, Amel Benaïssa, Sarah Seignobosc, Sébastien Monfé, Floriane Devigne, Chloé Dilasser, équipe d'accueil du TN, Nicolas Pommier, Fémïya, Amélie Genin - Cabinet JVM, Amandine Laval, Céline Gaudier, Bernadette Schnabel, Roxana Ionesco, Dulia Lengema, Ophélie Mac, Soumaya Phéline, Peggy Pierrot, Gaëtan d’Agostino, Olivier Marboeuf, Sander Costermans, Jasper Derluyn, les participant·e·s des workshops de mars 2024 et de juin 2024 : Daphne Agten, Damien Avice, Arnaud Botman, Hakim Bouacha, Laurent Caron, Quentin Chaverat, Ibrahima Diokine Sambou, Caroline Donnely, Jessica Fanhan, Zoé Kovacs, Christine Leboutte, Dinga Linora, Liu Marcia, Jovial Mbenga, Rehab Mehal, Alexandre Michel, Berdine Nusseldeer, Lea Quinsac, Deborah Rouach, Catherine Salée, Thibaut Sartori, Annah Schaeffer, Ghita Serraj, Consolate Siperius, Antoine Plaisant, Mieke Verdin, membres du conseil d’administration de Das Fräulein (Kompanie) : Audrey Brooking, Benoît Hennaut, Mylène Lauzon, Dominique Roodthooft, Michel Van Slijpe, Xavier Van Aerssen, Jennifer Fernandez, les traiteurs Archie, Ventre Content & Terter