Needcompany

After the success of Billy's Violence, the desire to continue this intense tale was so strong amongst the artistic team, cast and crew that it has led to a sequel: Billy’s Joy. Once again, Victor Lauwers turns his hand to reworking Shakespeare’s plays and see what they can still mean in our time - a time of great controversies, vulgar polemics, cancel culture, structural racism, climate change, war. What is there left to laugh at? Is humour the coward's weapon or a form of activism?

Jan Lauwers Maarten Seghers Performing arts

Billy's Violence

For Billy's Violence, Victor Afung Lauwers researched the ten tragedies of Shakespeare and rewrote them into violently loving, intimate dialogues in which the woman is the central focus, stripped of any historical reference or anecdotal content.

Maarten Seghers Performing arts

Songs of Disconnection

Songs of Disconnection is a next step in Seghers’ research into the potentially tragic relationship between entertainer and spectator. This resides in the irresistible urge to share and connect and the essential impossibility of doing so.

Grace Ellen Barkey Performing arts Visual arts

Malam / Night

Haunted by the night and inspired both by her ancestors and the Javanese theatre of shadows wayang, Grace Ellen Barkey, who was born in Surabaya, Indonesia, enters into a dialogue with the obscure and searches for forms of re-imagination in her installative performance MALAM / NIGHT.

News

24 April 2025

Karaoke Debat (Nekkersdal x Needcompany)

Nekkersdal and Needcompany join forces for the second time this year. Led by artist Einat Tuchman, the first Karaoke Debate will be held on Wednesday 30 April 2025.

Five talented young people from Molenbeek invite you to sing along to songs they have written themselves. Each song is followed by a debate on the strengths and weaknesses of society. Come and collaboratively imagine the future for social justice.

1 February 2025

DOUBLE BILL(y) comes to Belgium!

Care to waltz through Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies in a single evening? Needcompany has the pleasure to announce the Double Billy (Billy’s Violence & Billy’s Joy) at 30cc, Leuven. Following two sold-out editions at Impulstanz 2023 (Vienna) and Festival Grec 2024 (Barcelona), this once in a lifetime diptych is being performed in Belgium for the first time.

After Leuven, this double bill goes to Toplocentrala, Sofia!

26/02/2025 (30cc, Louvain) – [Buy your tickets here ici]
05/03/2025 & 07/03/2025 (Toplocentrala, Sofia) – [Buy your tickets here ici]

3 February 2025

Double Minutes#14

Double Minutes is a nomadic project that reimagines the format of an artist talk. In each edition, two artists are invited to share the peculiarities and inspirations that shape their practices. At the same time, they are encouraged to experiment with the scenographic, performative, and collaborative possibilities of such kind of presentation. The result is a series of live events that foster artistic discourse and the dynamic interaction between diverse practices.

For the 14th edition of Double Minutes artists Marlie Mul and Anina Müller are invited.

03/02/2025 at MILL
Doors : 20h00 | start: 20h30
Entrance : 2 - 5 - 10 euros (cash)

28 January 2025

United screens for Palestine: 5 Broken Cameras (Nekkersdal X Needcompany)

On Tuesday 4 February 2025, Needcompany will welcome Nekkersdal to MILL for the first time. A collaboration prompted by renovation works at Nekkersdal. For this first collaboration, the Needcompany studio will be transformed into a cinema, in which the impressive documentary ‘5 Broken Cameras’ will be screened as part of United Screens for Palestine and Refusing to disappear.

Tour

May 2025

08 May