Languages:
In French and Dutch, with French surtitles
Infos :
14 and over
Premiere on 22 September 2026 at the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
In December 2018, Tidjane Pokou, a Belgian-Senegalese medical student, died following a hazing ritual to join the prestigious TussenOns student society. Five years later, in May 2023, following a highly publicised trial, the court handed down lenient sentences to the eighteen people responsible for Tidjane’s death.
Two years after the trial, a meeting is organised on the Belgian coast. On one side, the Van Wezembeek family, one of whose two sons was convicted. On the other, Moussa Pokou, the bereaved father, accompanied by his loved ones and a filmmaker documenting his quest for the truth. But what was meant to be a gesture of reconciliation gradually turns into a tense, closed-door meeting. As the evening progresses, the accounts begin to unravel and the people take turns becoming witnesses, victims and protagonists in a story that was just waiting to be replayed.
Inspired by real events, the acclaimed director Anne-Cécile Vandalem (Tristesses, Arctique, Kingdom) uses *La Fête* to examine the mechanisms by which elites protect themselves, the denial of racism, and the power of narratives: for, ultimately, who decides what is told and what is erased?
Directed and written by Anne-Cécile Vandalem Co-written by Joëlle Sambi Dramaturgical collaboration Eva-Maria Bertschy, François Makanga, Hikmat Vanthomme With François Ebouele, Habib Ben Tanfous, Oscar Van Rompay, Anne-Pascale Clairembourg, Arne De Tremerie, Anne-Cécile Vandalem Set design Ruimtevaarders Costumes by Laurence Hermant Lighting design by Amélie Gehin Video design Vincent Pinckaers, Federico D’Ambrosio Sound design by Antoine Bourgain Music by Pierre Kissling, Alex Tambu Set construction Ateliers du Théâtre de Liège Costume production Ateliers du Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles Image by Téo Becher Production Das Fräulein (Kompanie) Co-production Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Théâtre de Liège, Nanterre-Amandiers CDN, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, ThéâtredelaCité CDN Toulouse Occitanie, Théâtre de Namur, Rührfestspiele, Maison de la Culture de Tournai, Les Célestins Théâtre de Lyon, Malraux scène nationale Chambéry Savoie, Maison de la Culture de Bourges, La Coop asbl & Shelter Prod (in progress) Supported by Taxhselter.be, ING, the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter scheme, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation / Theatre Department.
