Lisaboa Houbrechts

Lisaboa Houbrechts, born 1992, is a Belgian writer and director of theatrical works that are a cross between visual art, opera, music and dramatic text. She graduated summa cum laude in Drama from the School of Arts Ghent | KASK in 2016. Four years prior to that, working together with Romy Louise Lauwers, Victor Lauwers and Oscar van der Put, she founded her own company, Kuiperskaai, making an ambitious entrance in the world of theatre with shows like The Goldberg Chronicles (2014) and The Winter’s Tale (2016). A large cast, whimsical interaction between visuals and text, and an intelligent mix of different disciplines – performance, music, choreography, literature and visual art – were typical aspects of her work even then.

In 2017, Lisaboa Houbrechts was invited to to take part in P.U.L.S. (Project for Upcoming Talent for the Large Stage) at Toneelhuis in Antwerp. She worked with Alain Platel, Ivo van Hove and Jan Lauwers, creating a raw and idiosyncratic adaptation of Hamlet in 2018. This was followed in 2019 by the spectacular and musical Bruegel, a kaleidoscopic portrait of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the era in which he created Dulle Griet. Houbrechts wants to reexamine tales from the past – which are invariably manipulated, erased, forgotten or reduced to an unambiguous event – with fresh eyes.

Music is a constant throughout her work, with pieces like I Silenti (together with composer Fabrizio Cassol, 2021) about the genocide of the Roma during World War II, which she connects with Monteverdi’s madrigals about war and love, or Vake Poes; of hoe God verdween (2023), in which she explores the limits of the divine and exposes a dark trauma, using Bach’s music as a guideline. Baroque chaos and intense theatricality go hand in hand with quietude and a vague spirituality in this family epic, which was selected for the TheaterFestival 2023. In 2023, Houbrechts adapted and directed Euripides’ Médée for the Comédie-Française in Paris. In the 2024 season she also directed Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice for Staatsoper Hannover. Since 2022, Lisaboa Houbrechts is in charge of the artistic direction of Toneelhuis together with Gorges Ocloo, FC Bergman, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe and Olympique Dramatique.