Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

For the first time in their 17-year history, Gob Squad do not appear onstage themselves, instead directing a group of 8-14 year olds. As the audience observe them in a “safe-room” made of one-way mirrors like insects in a jam jar, the children onstage peer into the future at themselves as adults, and nostalgically back at their recent past, as they prepare to leave childhood behind forever. At the same time, Before Your Very Eyes confronts its adult audience with itself. Gob Squad shrewdly play with our ambivalent feelings towards our own longing for youth, our own histories and the inevitable end of all possibilities.

Before Your Very Eyes is the last part of a trilogy of theatre works with children, made for an adult audience. Before Your Very Eyes was one of the highlights of the Theatertreffen 2012 in Berlin.

Concept, Design, Direction: Gob Squad (Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost & Simon Will) * With Martha Balthazar, Maurice Belpaire, Spencer Bogaert, Zoë Breda, Faustijn De Ruyck, Ramses De Ruyck, Fons Dhossche, Tasja Doom, Gust Hamerlinck, Robbe Langeraert, Zoë Luca, Jeanne Vandekerckhove, Aiko Vanparys & Ineke Verhaegen * Produced by Campo, Ghent (BE) and Gob Squad (D/UK) * Co-produced by Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt (D); Hebbel Am Ufer, Berlin (D); Forum Freies Theater, Düsseldorf (D); Noorderzon, Groningen (NL) and others.