13-10-2025

Sarah Moeremans on Not Quichot
Portretfoto artistiek leider en directeur van Het Zuidelijk Toneel Sarah Moeremans, , poserend tegen een okergele achtergrond.

Over the next four years, Het Zuidelijk Toneel will be working with a permanent team of diverse creators: from established names to new talents. Each and every one of them is unique, untamed, and anything but run-of-the-mill. And they wholeheartedly embrace our love of fiction, ensemble spirit, and taking sustainability seriously. Led by artistic director Sarah Moeremans and with resident dramaturg Joachim Robbrecht as a sharp thinker on the sidelines, they will be bringing theater that doesn't color neatly within the lines in the coming years. In this section, we introduce them to you based on the performances they are creating with us. Who are they? What do they make? And why do they make what they make?

This time, we are pleased to introduce none other than our own artistic director and director Sarah Moeremans. She has been at the creative helm of Het Zuidelijk Toneel since December 2023, but her connection with the company dates back to 2021. Anyone who encounters her will often see her busy with ideas, texts, actors, and creators, but always with attention for everyone around her.

In August, you could already experience Not Quichot at Theaterfestival Boulevard, outside, in an unimaginative parking lot. After a summer pit stop, the performance is now tearing into the theater. From parking lot to stage, from the open air to the spotlight. Or... is it still playing in a parking lot? Join us on this hallucinatory road trip full of tall tales!

For those who are not yet familiar with your work: what is a typical ‘Sarah’ performance for you?

For those who are not yet familiar with my work: you really don't need to have seen it to come to Not Quichot. But the performance is very much in line with what I have been doing in recent years. Often with the same performers who are now back on stage.

A typical ‘Sarah’ performance starts with the performers. Not actors, but performers. Because in my work, the acting is not realistic, but over-the-top, expressive, outspoken, and full of fun. The text is usually a response to a classic, such as Cervantes' Don Quixote. Together with Joachim Robbrecht (writer and regular sidekick), we use it as a springboard for musings on life and living together.

In addition, it is always a sensory extravaganza: soundscapes, songs, extravagant imagery, costumes, and lighting. Everything is worked out down to the last detail. Recurring themes are often love and death. Love for one's fellow human beings; the desire to mean something in an absurd world. And also: what remains of you when you are no longer here? All of that is also in Not Quichot."

“My ambition is that the audience can attach themselves to Het Zuidelijk Toneel: a one-night stand is fine, but you should also be able to engage in a long love relationship with us.”

- Sarah Moeremans

You are now the artistic director and director at Het Zuidelijk Toneel. What are your biggest dreams and ambitions within HZT and maybe even beyond? Where do you want to go, artistically and organizationally?

"Ooh, that's a big question! Together with the team, I want to promote the idea that Het Zuidelijk Toneel is a place where people from different backgrounds, with different tastes, opinions, and talents always feel welcome. It is precisely these differences that create an exciting and stimulating cohesion. After all, theater is a shared experience: you watch together, react together, and talk about it together. That's why I think it's important to create space for encounters.

In addition, my ambition is for the audience to feel attached to Het Zuidelijk Toneel. A one-night stand is fine, but you should also be able to enter into a long-term relationship with us. That is why, since this year, we have been working with a permanent ensemble of six actors and with directors who create multiple productions. We want you to get to know us, to follow us, and to be a fan of an actor, a creator, or a style, and to feel that we are building a story together.

I also want to use my creative thinking outside the artistic sphere. I see all aspects of the work as a form of art. For example, in how we deal with sustainability. This year, we are working without physical sets, using only a puff of light and smoke, and next year, three directors will share one set, so we produce less material. My dream is to also use that artistic muscle for policy, organization, and future vision so that Het Zuidelijk Toneel not only inspires on stage, but also beyond."

Twee performers zitten bovenop afvalbakken in paars licht terwijl één van hen fel schreeuwt en de ander toekijkt.
Not Quichot
On October 31, 2025, Not Quichot will premiere at Schouwburg Concertzaal Tilburg! What can we as an audience expect from Not Quichot?

It's going to be a wild ride, a trip even. It takes place at a memorial service for a character called Q. Through the stories, real or imagined, of Q's friends who have gathered, you'll tear through Europe with him in a van with a leaky exhaust, searching for brotherhood with your fellow man. And yes, it gets philosophical, but with fries. And comical, but with bloody noses. But in the end, I promise, there will be... ah no, I'm not going to give that away!"

Why this adaptation right now? Which themes from this classic resonate with our time?

"The story of Don Quixote is over 400 years old and has inspired countless writers to create their own versions. Writer Joachim Robbrecht and I wanted to say something about fiction. Essentially, it is about someone who thinks he is a knight because he has read too many chivalric romances. He constantly interprets the mundane reality around him in such a way that it fits his knightly fantasy. Thus, an inn becomes a castle and a farmer's daughter becomes his beloved. Quixote embraces fiction and succeeds in living entirely within it. That is both admirable and ridiculous at the same time.

This is particularly relevant now, in an age of ‘post-truth’, ‘fact-free politics’ and ‘reality-bending’. We have become afraid of fiction because we see how it is abused by conspiracy theorists and autocrats. That is why we also created an anti-Quixote: someone who distrusts fiction, but as a result loses his grip on reality.

Fiction is neither good nor bad. It is an instrument of deception and of imagination. That is why you will not find a single main character in our play, but six unreliable narrators, each telling their own version of the story. This, too, is borrowed from Don Quixote. Play, performance, and reality are constantly intertwined.”

Vijf performers staan in een rij tegen struikgewas aan en reageren geschrokken en overdreven op iets buiten beeld.
Not Quichot
Do you recognize yourself in certain situations or characters from Not Quichot?

"Certainly, I recognize myself, but not only myself. At the beginning of the creative process, we shared stories with the entire team: writers, dramaturges, and actors. About Quichot adaptations we read, about travels, encounters, and moments when we suddenly thought: this is a Quichot situation.

I too have been driven by someone who was speeding far too fast on German highways, I too have ended up in farmers' protests or sat drunk on a ferry and had uncomfortable conversations with angry people. So yes, I've been there."

Thank you, Sarah, for a glimpse into your creative process!

Not Quichot will be playing in theaters throughout the Netherlands and Belgium from October 31, 2025, to January 31, 2026. Everyone is going crazy in this world. Yes, you too. No one knows what is real and what is fiction anymore. Survival is more a matter of luck than the result of deliberate action. So we are all the foolish hero with good intentions, Don Quixote. Or not? Don't buy a van. Buy a ticket!

Check the schedule