You read it more and more often: “Person found dead at home after 3 years. The person was never reported missing.” It’s increasingly common for people to go unnoticed for a long time after their death. In 2023, this occurred five times more often than before the turn of the century. Five times as many people saying their final words to an empty house. Their bodies too far decomposed to say anything with certainty about their final moments. That very uncertainty is the starting point for KASKO’s new production, directed by theatre maker Hendrik Aerts.

Paradise Circus Island invites you to lie down there yourself, with your cheek on the cool kitchen floor tiles. With letters piling up in the hallway. A body quietly decaying. From summer to winter. From mud to dust. And no one missing you enough to break down the door. What is the life that continues to flow while you lie there, your cheek on the kitchen floor?

With Paradise Circus Island, we peek through the letterbox. We chat with the neighbours. We listen to the ticking stove. The humming fridge. And eventually, we break open the front door. Along with six other characters, each living in their own isolation. Each on their own island.

The performance is being developed by an interdisciplinary team of creators: Hendrik Aerts as director, Nic Bruckman as writer, Ricarda Franzen as dramaturg, André Pronk as scenographer and lighting designer, Jacqueline Steijlen as costume designer, Manuel Kiros Paolini as choreographer, and Jonathan Bonny as musical director. The piece is created together with emerging performing artists who are curious about the interweaving of acting, movement, singing, imagery, and music. This way, a unique working method is developed—one that emerges from the personality, skills, and fascinations of each group member and their individual relationship to the theme.

A performance featuring singing, live music, text, and dance, performed in multiple languages. Supertitles are used.