BIG IN BELGIUM to Return to the Edinburgh Fringe

Following the huge success of the four previous seasons at Summerhall which have included the award-winning Us/Them, One Hundred Homes and The Great Downhill Journey of Little Tommy, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan Productions, Summerhall and Theatre Royal Plymouth return to present a fifth BIG IN BELGIUM season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and featuring some of the most significant theatre companies from the Flemish part of Belgium.

Each of the shows in this season has previously been very successful on the European mainland and are now presented for the first time to Edinburgh audiences, some translated and adapted, ready for breaking new grounds in English-speaking territories.

The works are subsequently progressed worldwide following their Edinburgh premieres by the above producing parties.

This year BIG IN BELGIUM is also pleased to present four of its productions within a brand new theatre space adapted for them within Summerhall in association with RBC/Upper-Church.

Old boyfriend photos, emails, texts, audio recordings and poetry. Struggling with her love life, Julie Cafmeyer experiences org*sms, despair, rejection and heaven. In an intimate setting, and with you the audience, she strives to create a genuine connection. A show that is both vulnerable yet utterly fearless, giving an insight into the heartaches that we all share. More than just another coming of age story, Bombastic Declaration of Love redefines what theatre can be as we are taken along on a journey to find out what it is that we all define as love.

Can art really save the world? Belgian theatre-maker and performer Enkidu Khaled's award-winning show Working Method is a unique form of creative interaction. His audience is complicit in analysing and simplifying the complex process of making theatre through artistic expression and reflection. A workshop and a performance all in one, Enkidu combines participatory actions with his own history, emphasizing the power of imagination and during the performance, analyses and simplifies the complex process of making theatre.

Three years ago, Suzanne Grotenhuis won a prize at the Belgian Theatre Festival with her first solo show. The money was meant to be spent on making a new show but realising she couldn't afford this, bought a plastic ice skating rink and a pair of white figure skates with the money instead.

On Ice tells the story of why a young theater performer decides to buy an ice-skating rink. Why the ice skating rink somehow forms the solutions to a broken heart.

Its a story of loneliness, of bravery, and of complete absurdity.

Multiple Fringe-First winners Ontroerend Goed invite you to get under the skin of the well-to-do, the 1%, the super-rich, the ones who pull the strings, the faces we never get to see when they return to the Fringe with their latest production, LIES (£¥€$).

For one night, you can take their chairs. You call the shots. You're in the centre of our economic system. You shape the course.

And who knows, you might make the world a better place, more fair, more responsible, because you'll do things differently, for sure.

Mireille & Mathieu unpack their paraphernalia at a flea-market. The objects and toys they pick up turn out to be bursting with stories. These little scenes, sometimes gentle and poetic, but more often cruel and comical, follow each other in quick succession. ARM is an introduction to Flemish humour: uncomplicated, excessive, nuts, and surreal - a performance bursting with delightful absurdities, original finds and hilarious scenes about love, violence and playing in its broadest meaning.

Timeau De Keyser, Hans Mortelmans and Simon De Winne - together known as Tibaldus are one of Belgian's most exciting and innovative young theatre companies, producing work that is fierce, surprising and thrilling.

They have joined with five other actors and dancers to create a bold and radical contemporary reworking of Witold Gombrowicz's ('The Shakespeare of Poland') ground-breaking masterpiece Ivona, Princess of Burgundia the story of a royal family and its household which loses its grip when Prince Filip suddenly becomes engaged to Ivona.

IF YOU GO:

All performances take place at Summerhall, Summerhall Place, EH9 1PL. Box Office: 0845 874 3001.

Julie Cafmeyer
Bombastic Declaration of Love
4 - 27 August at 10.30 (11.30)
(not 7, 14, 21, 28 August)

Enkidyu Khaled
Working Method
4 - 13 August at 15.45 (17.00)
(not 7 August)

Suzanne Grotenhuis
On Ice
4 - 27 August at 14.30 (15.45)
(not 7, 14, 21, 28 August)

Ontroerend Goed
LIES (£¥€$).
4 - 27 August at 18.30 (20:00) and 20.30 (22.00)
(not 7, 14, 21, 28 August)

Mireille and Mathieu
Arm
4 - 27 August at 16.25 (17.15)
(not 7, 14, 21, 28 August)

Tibaldus
Ivona, Princess of Burgundia
15 - 27 August at 15.45 (17.20)
(not 17 August)

Photo Credit: Kurt Van der Elst