Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

Peter Verhelst considers Euripides’s ‘The Bacchae’ to be a fascinating proto play about religion, power, the longing for order, the fear of the uncontrollable within ourselves, etc. In the play, Thebes is destabilised by the strange intruder Dionysus. He sends the women into a frenzy, ripping animals apart during their bacchanalia in the woods. Dionysus therefore needs to be killed to restore the order.

Inspired by ‘The Bacchae’, Peter Verhelst has created a performance about the Dionysian body, about longing, beauty, rituals and our need for stories to control our instincts. “UTOPIA GmbH” consists of images, objects and movements. Poetry without words. A dance performance rather than a play.

Peter Verhelst has already worked with photographer Dirk Braeckman, dancer Lisbeth Gruwez, actor Kristof Van Boven as well as actress and director Sanne Van Rijn for the preparatory studies ‘Origine’ and ‘Chemisch Insect’. Last season, these plays were entirely revised and expanded with new passages to become “UTOPIA GmbH”.

There are three bodies on stage: a male one (Dionysus) and two female ones. Each move represents the possibility to a story. “UTOPIA Gmbh” is an invitation to take the time to watch and let the stories unfold, only to cast them aside and make way for new stories.