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One of the problems these types of productions have to contend with is the passage of time: children grow quickly and, therefore, have to be replaced frequently. Gob Squad decided to work with this very concept. Their performance centres on time. On lives as they begin and end, and are determined in between by the choices we make. The result is not only funny but also challenges on two levels. Adolescents want to grow up as quickly as possible, but the older they get, the more pressing the question becomes as to whether this was really all that desirable in the end. There are no prizes in life for growing older. It happens and you just have to get on with it. And that’s no easy feat judging from the picture that is painted here. Having just come into adulthood: overly assertive or endlessly hesitant. Around midlife: frustrated, stuck, failed, bored, forever insecure or more conventional than ever imagined. And the moment you die: alone, Griet Op de Beeck, De morgen

THE CAMPO arts centre in Ghent (Belgium) was founded in January 2008 out of a fusion of international production house Victoria and the local Nieuwpoorttheater. The arts centre is intended to offer a broad artistic umbrella that is able to encompass every aspect of theatre in the broadest sense of the word. CAMPO creations can be both fresh and smallscale work or major productions, domestic and international. CAMPO provides support to, fuels, provokes and questions artists. It responds to artistic proposals and artists and challenges them with specific assignments. It does this both in one-off joint ventures (as in Before Your Very Eyes, the coproduction of CAMPO and Gob Squad) but it can also be the start of a long-term-relationship. Apart from creating its own productions, CAMPO also offers support for the work of kindred artists and companies, and its studios are regularly opened to an endless series of homeless artists. In addition, CAMPO is also a place for the presentation of theatre and dance from Belgium and abroad.

GOB SQUAD is a group of UK and German artists who have gained a reputation as one of the most innovative contemporary performance companies in Europe. The seven artists work jointly on the concept, direction and performance of their work. Founded in 1994 and based in Berlin and Nottingham, the group explores the point where theatre meets performance, art and media. Their works have received wide international acclaim and are regularly shown throughout Europe, and have toured to Australia, Africa, Asia, North and South America, As well as theatres and galleries, Gob Squad place their work at the heart of urban life - in houses, shops, underground stations, car parks, hotels or directly on the street. They see their mission as an attempt to place artistic actions directly in the context of everyday life, and to confront it with contemporary culture.

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HARD TO BE