Scapegoat is a performance by young Belgian playwright Ferenc Balcaen. He explores the complicated relationship between violence and eroticism based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. The performance takes the audience on a journey through a desolate inferno where faceless individuals wander. Influenced by the works of Peter Paul Rubens and Francis Bacon, Scapegoat challenges the spectator’s moral compass and Balcaen creates an alternative world where your understanding and compassion are challenged to the fullest. Auditively, Scapegoat makes idiosyncratic use of voice and soundscapes inspired by Solage’s polyphonic compositions and Liszt’s Dante Sonata/Fantasia Quasi Sonata.

Ferenc Balcaen (BE)

Balcaen Ferenc, theatre maker, graduated from the Drama-Regie course at the Ritcs in Brussels in 2022. In 2021, he participated in the festival Platform In De Maak in Leuven and the festival Par Hasard-Groot Gegijnhof Editie in Ghent. In 2021, together with Alia Rifai and Juan Cruzz Cizmar, he made the performance Pheasant (images, physical) in which he explored the theme of gender. In 2022, he graduated with the performance Tristis inspired by The Garden of Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. In 2023, he was directing assistant to Aïda Gabriëls for the opera Cambio composed by Frank Nuyts that premiered during the Ghent Festival at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke. In 2024, he participates in the performance Joy Boy, a tribute to Jules Eastman, a collaboration between Collectif fair-part and S.E.M Ensemble that premieres at DE SINGEL on 19 January 2024. In April 2024, he will premiere his performance SCAPEGOAT at DE SINGEL at the CARTA festival.