In The Beach, eleven young people aged between 14 and 20 spend a day and a night on the beach. Sunbathing on a wonderfully beautiful sandy plain made of fabric, and with music of rustling waves, the young people share their thoughts about sexuality. Their secret desires, their doubts and fantasies. They don’t tell them out loud. While the performers rub themselves with sun cream and eat an ice cream, you hear their voices, as if you are hearing them from the inside. Gradually everything becomes more exuberant and stranger, including the outfits of the performers. The texts shift towards the darker sides of intimacy, towards experiences with sexual harassment, but also towards nocturnal sexual adventures.

What is special is that the texts of The Beach were written by a group of other young people. Director Sarah Vanhee guided ten young writers from Antwerp for half a year, who wrote their textual contributions based on conversations, writing sessions, improvisations and interviews. The starting point of the project was this question that Vanhee asked pupils from two schools in Brussels: about which subject would you like to know more? All of the young people answered: about intimacy and sexuality. How do I ask for consent? How do I know how someone else feels? And how do I reconcile my sexuality with my religion? All these questions are reflected in the performance. The design comes from the theatre makers, but it is the voice of the young people that is given all the space here.

Sarah Vanhee is a Flemish performer, theatre maker, artist and writer. In her work she mixes theatre, visual art and literature, fiction and reality. She made The Beach at Antwerp’s hetpaleis, the largest performing arts venue in Belgium that presents performances for young audiences as well as for young performers.