There is supposed to be a performance, under a thick blanket of snow. At least, that’s what they said when we bought the tickets at the box office. Suddenly snowflakes start to flutter up and something appears that looks like an empty stage. Is this the beginning? Or is this the ending? Hello…?

This show for the whole family, eight years old and up, starts where other shows usually end: the actors go home and all their things are loaded into the lorry – ready to drive on to the next theatre. But what if in the meantime there aren’t any theatres any longer? The End of the Beginning of the End is a show that still desperately tries to present something. Perhaps the very last story can still be saved, or is there another way to be found? Who will help them?

Enter the world of award-winning director Jetse Batelaan. As original as he is funny, he stretches the limits of fantasy and fails to live up to the expectations on purpose.

In The end of the beginning of the end, director Jetse Batelaan paints a picture of a future without imagination, and does it in such a radical, astounding way that it leaves you breathless. That was it: the very last show in the children’s theatre hetpaleis in Antwerp. We watch as the last remaining technician turns the lights off – the show is over, the stage is broken down. Or is it…? From that point on, time moves in reverse: the players start rebuilding the stage while walking and moving backwards. And they keep it up, for fully an hour and a half: a wad of paper jumps out of a trash can, someone spits coffee into their cup.