In ads seeking actors for a new biblical play, theatre also sought people who had killed a sibling

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A Belgian theatre has apologised for placing newspaper advertisements seeking actors who had fought for Islamic State or had killed their siblings.



The theatre in Ghent was looking for recruits for a play by the Swiss director Milo Rau, who attracted controversy last year by casting children in a play about a notorious Belgian paedophile.

“Have you fought for your convictions? For God? Have you fought for Isis or other religions? Get in touch,” read one of the adverts for the NTGent theatre, which was published in a Dutch-speaking free weekly newspaper.

Another with the same NTGent email address said: “Have you killed or seriously injured your brother (or sister)? Perhaps metaphorically? Do you want to talk about it?”

The play, to be performed in September, is called Mystic Lamb after the famed altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck at Saint Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent.

The theatre apologised after a public outcry. In a statement sent to Agence France-Presse on Friday, it said it “recognised that with its appeal for Isis fighters it could have given the impression of giving them a platform, and recognised its poor communication in this regard, and apologises.”

Sven Gatz, the culture minister for Flanders, said this week that “artistic freedom has its limits”.

About 400 Belgians have gone to fight for Isis in Syria and Iraq since 2013-14, making it one of the European countries that has produced the most foreign fighters. Those who return to Belgium normally face arrest by the authorities.

Rau wanted to create a “theatre of witnesses” and was looking for about a dozen people to fill key roles, including those of Adam and Eve and their son Cain, who murders his brother in the Bible, NTGent said.

“We are reinterpreting the key figures of the Mystic Lamb and we see that they are still alive among us ... our appeal was addressed to everyone including Catholic and Protestant extremists, and others,” it said.

Rau, the theatre’s artistic director for the 2018-19 season, shot to fame with his play The Last Days of the Ceausescus, about Romania’s former communist dictator.

But he attracted controversy last year by using children to stage a story about how Belgium has been traumatised by the paedophile and killer Marc Dutroux, who kidnapped and raped six young girls.