De Duivels / Les Diables

At the start of the 17th century, the French provincial town of Loudun is shaken by a wave of hysteria: local nun Jeanne des Anges is accused of demonic possession.

Local authorities fear a demon, with obscene motives, is making the monastery unsafe at night. Soon they catch sight of the progressive and sexually promiscuous priest Urbain Grandier. This accusation marks the start of one of the most infamous witch trials in history. Loudun becomes the scene of a grand political theatre; both the nuns and Grandier become actors in a legal spectacle that addresses brand-new societal issues. Is the nuns’ possession truly a supernatural intervention by evil powers, or is it a collective denunciation of their centuries-long (sexual) oppression? And is Grandier guilty, or is he merely a scapegoat in a fast-evolving world?

Krapp wants to open up this historical case and use it as raw material for a new theatre production. De Duivels/Les Diables takes the form of a modern trial, with the audience serving as a public jury. This jury is confronted with a society in the midst of a crisis of faith, where fear and doubt seep into the cracks that form in the old, monolithic truths.

Right at this time of major change – of scientific revolution, emerging enlightened thinking, growing atheism and feminist emancipation – forgotten devils re-emerge, stronger, more powerful and more conservative than ever before.

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concept Mats Vandroogenbroeck, Nona Demey Gallagher and Timo Sterckx (KRAPP) text Mats Vandroogenbroeck play Mats Vandroogenbroeck, Timo Sterckx, Fleur Perneel, Bastiaan Vandendriesche, Maria Zandvliet and Fiene Zasada direction Nona Demey Gallagher dramaturgy Dina Dooreman costumes Eleni Ellada Damianou begeleiding Valentijn Dhaenens picture Anton Claeys translation Trevor Perri, Anne Vanderschueren production KRAPP & KVS co production Perpodium, Reiefestival and  De Grote Post with support of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest photo Lieselot Siddiki en Anton Claeys