Berlin

Theater en toneel

n ALABAMA, Fien Leysen follows in the footsteps of her late father, reporter Kris Leysen. In 1978, on assignment for the Belgian public broadcasting company, he visited Birmingham, Alabama. He talked to young people about work and studies, about pursuing the American dream, and about the gap between rich and poor.

On his first night in Alabama, Kris Leysen was immediately – and unexpectedly – named deputy sheriff. An idea of the local sheriff, so that the people in the town would trust him. Forty-five years later, Fien, now the same age as her father at the time, is travelling to Alabama. She wants to find the students and the sheriff from 1978 and revisit the town and its people. In Birmingham, she asks the questions her father left open and hopes to find answers there herself.

Together with musician Steven De bruyn, Fien shares video footage on stage from then and now, and the result of her quest. A performance about the passing of time and different stages of loss.

A production by Fien Leysen/BERLIN in coproduction with theater arsenaal