How can we move from despair to resistance? How can we channel our disappointment in prevailing systems into hope for a better future? Performers Anouk Friedli and Guus Diepenmaat take the stage with their project Angrybodies to rage against capitalist and patriarchal forces, inviting us to shout with them. We felt electrified after our conversation. Enough reason to check out their performance at overdrive in Leuven this fall!
Hi! Can you introduce yourselves?
Guus: We are Guus and Anouk from Angrybodies. We met at RITCS (Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound) in Brussels, where we both studied drama. We generally make theatre performances in The Black Box, but for our project Angrybodies we wanted to move away from the classical theatre process. We started from what bothers us and made music from it. Like a band, but still theatrical and performative. For the beats, we work together with Anne van de Star. We are so happy we found her, she is a brilliant composer and creates exactly the kind of sound we were looking for.
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What are you angry about exactly?
Guus: Lots of things. A long list. [laughs]
Anouk: At its core is an anger against capitalism and how capitalism allows many of the things we are angry about to become encapsulated by the system itself. We are angry about the whole idea that we live in a system that we do not agree with, but that we are part of and therefore cannot change. It creates a cynical, passive attitude. We believe that another emotion precedes despair, and that is anger.
We believe that another emotion precedes despair, and that is anger
You celebrate the emancipatory power of anger, but you are not offensive. Is it a conscious choice to be inviting rather than daunting?
Anouk: The audience should not get the feeling that the anger is directed at them. We invite them to be angry with us. For example, we all have experienced anger and sadness when reading the newspaper but we often don’t know what to do with it. Perhaps we will get more comfort from shouting together instead of processing all this information alone.
Guus: I think the anger itself is a celebration. Anger is not a bad emotion; it is important to process events and set things in motion. We want to celebrate this anger together with the audience.
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One of your slogans is: ‘Frustrated man in politics, take some fucking therapy. Angry woman in therapy, engage yourself in politics.’ Can you explain it?
Guus: It is an encouragement to people who usually stay in the background to raise their voices. We have been listening to the same voices for far too long. We want those in power to engage in self-reflection and vice versa. It is certainly not a purely male-female issue, it’s about the emancipation of unheard voices.
Anouk: We live in a time where self-care and therapy fuel capitalism. We fall into burnout en masse, go into therapy and get better so we can all get back into the rat race. Maybe we should change the system instead of constantly adapting ourselves. That message is also in the slogan.
Maybe we should change the system instead of adapting ourselves
You’ve boomed massively on Instagram. How did that happen?
Anouk: It went viral even before we had our first live show. We thought it would be cool to make a teaser and spread it on social media. At that time, we had about 400 followers. We were happy with 20 likes on our posts [laughs] but this video suddenly had 400 likes, the next day 2,000, the day after that 6,000. It was really crazy. It was picked up by anti-fascist and feminist Instagram channels and went viral.
Guus: It is nice to see how our message left the theatre bubble and reached a wide audience because of the internet. For example, we have many followers from Argentina who message us about how they feel supported by our videos while fighting the political system in their country. How amazing would it be to join forces with Argentinian feminist collectives? Who knows. [smiles]
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What will you bring to overdrive?
Guus: So, for the moment, we have one live set with songs. In September, we play at De Markten in Brussels. In October, we join the overdrive in Leuven, and in November we’ll be at the Explore The North festival in The Netherlands. For next year, we are planning on making new music, which is very exciting!
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Let us conclude with some hope for the future. What would an ideal society look like for you?
Anouk: I think utopias are always a bit dangerous. I think the ideal world would be one in which everyone can participate. I am really curious about what the world would look like after capitalism. It is really exciting to think about that. What would we do, how would we work together, what would be invented? We cannot imagine what it would be like. Maybe that would be my utopia, a world where people believe things are possible. A world where we are open to different kinds of systems.
Guus: I agree. I would like to see a world in which teachers and people working in healthcare are paid well. A fair wage, a high wage, as a token of sincere appreciation. Or we start with basic income right away. It is possible, that enough research has been done. But here too the problem is that people do not dare to choose it, while we need radical choices.
We started from what bothers us and made music from it. Like a band, but still theatrical and performative
<div class="editorial-banner"> <div class=“editorial-credits”> @angrybodies</div></div>
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