“You smile at me. It’s your way of telling me that I’m yours, and that you would keep me with you for the rest of your life. No matter what I would do. We are close and can talk about everything. Even when I’m unfair you still forgive me. I would sit there, right there, on your lap, and I would look into your eyes. Deeply concentrated. Heavy breathing.”

Two boys drift through life in a fever dream, creating stories that aid them in their upbringing as a method to understand the experiences they go through in life. By portraying roles of dominance, care, and passion, they learn the social codes of existence. They learn about love.

By playing with the space between fiction and reality, ‘As if We Truly Met’ actively displays tools of manipulation by drawing links between the fictional characters, between the director and performers, and between the audience and the performers. In a spectacular moment of collision, these worlds merge together, compelling the audience to take an active position in how they relate to the presented narrative.

‘As if We Truly Met’ questions what shapes our understanding of ourselves and each other. What kind of narratives have we internalised to become who we are, and to what extent are we able to change this imposed reality?

Creator, Writer, Director, light-design and performer: Nikolaj Fondt Salzwedell
Performer and co-creator: Eland Peeters
Technician and performer: Bram Kemme
Original cast and thereby also co-created with: Jakob Vrancken & Im Byeongsu
Advised by: Fleur van den Berg

Photos by: Gergely Ofner