the beach

‘With your back in the sand and the sun on your face. Your beautiful best friend helps you to rub sunscreen on your body. Her hands move up and down. She smiles. You’re dying to tell her how wonderful she looks today. And how much you love her. But you’re afraid of ruining your friendship.’ // ‘Are people becoming more and more prudish about sex? Is there more polarization? Are things different in other countries? Here, gay sex is forbidden because we believe it’s against nature.’ //  ‘No towel, no swimwear – can't be bothered. If you’re as confident as I am, you always have to be able to improvise. You always have to be ready to land a punch and take a hit. I’m with the bruzz, hunting for the huzz.’ // ‘That it’s not just something mysterious. Dialogue sex. Ruleless sex. Crazy sex. Wild sex.’ // ‘I want to find love without having to make love.’

Together with eleven young people, you experience a day and a night on the beach. The murmur of the waves forms the soundtrack to their thoughts on sexuality – so many desires, questions, beliefs, doubts, fantasies. Their inner, personal reflections on intimacy and eroticism become as visible as their hot skin.

‘Until my unattainable, huge, octopoid desire disappears into the depths of the dark ocean, looking for its next victim.’

The text of the beach was created over a period of five months by ten young people from Antwerp on the basis of writing sessions, improvisations, conversations and interviews. On stage, this text is embodied by eleven other young performers.

the beach is the first collaboration between hetpaleis and Sarah Vanhee, an transdisciplinary artist whose work has been shown in Belgium and abroad for more than twenty years.

Performance is in Dutch, with English subtitles.

Trigger warnings
- sudden and loud noises
- mental health (self-image, peer pressure, self-harm)
- sexual abuse
- discrimination and inequality (misogynistic language, racism, transphobia, colonialism)
- sexuality in all its aspects (including references to pornography, fetishism, queer sexuality, religion, gender roles)

Good to know
- the performers are non-professional, young actors wearing beachwear
- the texts were not written by the actors, but by a group of other young people, based on their own experiences and street interviews