Safety precautions during its late-19th-century renovation gave Brussels’ Flemish theatre KVS a set of tiered fire-escape balconies wrapped around its exterior. But if the building’s distinctive design succeeds in getting audiences out, then maverick artistic director Michael De Cock has proven similarly adept at drawing them in.
“We represent the city – we are a city theatre,” says De Cock, who took over in 2016. “We want to be a crossroads where people can meet and share emotions and talk and be free,” he continues over coffee at the theatre’s bar in a modern development opposite the historic Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg main house. That philosophy means that, when I visit, the KVS foyer has been given over to an artist-led gathering in response to the Israel-Hamas war, during which the names of casualties are read out. His model is of a dynamic theatre functioning like a town square – “you have to be up to the minute” – and it makes a stark contrast to many UK theatres. Last week, culture workers gathered on London’s South Bank in protest at arts organisations’ “deep silence” on the conflict.
