Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

What does the classical Greek myth of Prometheus have in common with Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket’? To Jan Fabre, the connection is obvious. Prometheus angers the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to man. Because of his stubborn behaviour, the gods punish him by having him bound to a rock where an eagle picks his liver at night. The liver grows back every day, only to be eaten again the following night. Pain, anger and humiliation for the rest of eternity. Just as in the Prometheus myth, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ sees soldiers being tortured and sacrificed for the good of the nation. Mentally and physically drained, they are led to the slaughter of the Vietnam war. The fire that Prometheus gave to man has turned against him. In his new piece, Fabre shows us the battlefield that our society has become.