Un Monde Réel

In our contemporary societies, childhood is treated very differently in a vast number of areas compared to the rest of human lifespan. Whether in terms of rights, laws, or even the subjects and objects to which it has access, childhood seems to be deliberately detached from the society and decision-making processes.

Behind the often cited need to protect children from the violent realities of adult life (which children paradoxically know only too well), we can also see the first mechanisms of systemic citizen control and the beginnings of a deliberate dispossession of their political power and autonomy. Childhood seems to be intentionally confined to a state of incubation, where power and normative violence are exercised until maturity, thus defined as the center of human life.

Unlike other social minorities, childhood is unique in the sense that it can only be temporary; everyone has no choice but to grow out of it, through the inevitable process of growing up. But we might ask ourselves whether children consider themselves to actually be children. What if, in their inevitable transformation, they do not sense that precious insights and mysteries – which only they are capable of grasping – are slipping away from them?

Tumbleweed’s fifth creation, Un Monde Réel, is a performance addressed to all age groups and performed, lit, voiced and composed by a group of eight children. Combining choreography, singing, spoken word and technical manipulation on stage, the performers will reverse the power dynamics and lead the audience into an open space, without classic seating arrangements, to discover a reality of which they are no longer the guarantors or models, and whose reference points have been altered.

This project, initiated in 2024 with a series of workshops in Belgium, Burkina Faso and Mexico, aims to hand children the full control of the theatre, so that they can use it to give voice to their opinions and their visions of the world of tomorrow. Supported by a professional team of engaged artists, they will begin the creative phase in September 2026, leading up to the premiere, scheduled for 12, 13 and 14 November 2027 at La Raffinerie (Charleroi danse, Brussels).

It is important to note that the performers of Un Monde Réel will be paid for both the performances and the creative process (starting after the audition). They will also be closely involved in the development of the artistic elements, so that the production reflects their own sensibilities and dramaturgical approaches.