Alabama

Following in her father's footsteps, theatre-maker Fien Leysen asks the questions he left behind. A performance about the passage of time and different stages of loss.

In 1978, reporter Kris Leysen travelled to the American city Birmingham, in the state of Alabama. On assignment for the Belgian public broadcasting company, he talked to young people about work and studies, pursuing the American dream, and the gap between rich and poor. On his first night in Alabama, Kris Leysen was immediately – and unexpectedly – named deputy sheriff. An idea of the local sheriff, so that the people in the town would trust him. 

Forty-five years later, Fien, now the same age as her father at the time, is travelling to Alabama herself. She wants to find the students and the sheriff from 1978 and revisit the town and its people. In Birmingham, she asks the questions her father left open and hopes to find answers there herself. Together with musician Steven De bruyn, Fien shares video footage on stage from then and now, as well as the result of her quest.