DARK - Artificial presence & Intelligence

DATES: 27.11.2025 + 28.11.2025
LOCATION:  Grand Theatre - Groningen [NL]

A performance made by Kris Verdonck / A TWO DOGS COMPANY
+ SPOT ON | A lecture on Theatre & Ai by Claire Swyzen (VUB), Catelijne van Middelkoop & dramaturg Kristof van Baarle.

In this production, Verdonck continues his exploration of the tension between presence and absence, real and fake, the human and the technology in the contemporary time of AI. Mustaf Ahmeti and Jeroen Van der Ven perform the piece consisting of three parts: DARK, ACT #2 BRASS #2. The distinction beteen (a)live and digital becomes more vaque as DARK explores the theater space as (well as) that “other blackbox” that hides behind the pixels on our screen. The algorithms and AI that guide the many chatbots and social media platforms. 

DARK blurs the line between live and digital, body and code. Behind glowing screens and glass, a performer vanishes and reappears, pulling us toward the hidden black box where algorithms breathe. Through AI, ACT #2 resurrects echoes of Beckett — a lone voice whispering in the dark as blankets rise like restless ghosts. In BRASS #2, sousaphones hum with presence, yet no player can be found.

In this eerie dance of bodies, data, and desire, even reality feels uncertain. What lives behind our screens? Who’s really in control — the human, the machine, or something in between? 

More information www.grandtheatregroningen.nl

17:00 - 18:15 | Public Lecture:
Performance art in our current computer culture by Claire Swyzen

• Grand Theatre, Upper Hall
• Free entrance
• Language: English 

The lecture by Dr Claire Swyzen (researcher at the Free University Brussels and the Centre of Literature, Intermediality, and Culture/CLIC), "Interface, Database, Protocol: Text as Data in Postdramatic Mediaturgies”, reinterprets the shift from dramatic theatre to "postdramatic theatre" (Lehmann) in terms of "computer culture" (Manovich), yet with a focus on any form of language that we can witness onstage, whether textual or oral, human- or machine generated. 

How can we describe the text's changed appearance, mode of production, and function in the context of digital culture? Claire Swyzen therefore introduces three computer concepts ­—interface, database, and protocol— as additional tools for performance analysis and applies them to a wide range of work, from lo-fi to algorithmic theatre and statistics-based or social media performances by artists like Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Tim Etchells, Annie Dorsen, Edit Kaldor, or Rimini Protokoll. Each of the three concepts highlights a major tendency in postdramatic theatre: a shift in the text's presentation/mediation (from face to interface), a shift in authorial agency (from author to data processor), and a shift in the rules according to which the text is generated (from plot to protocol).

19:00 - 19:50 | A Conversation about Theatre and AI:
Pre-Show Talk with DARK artist and expert guests

• In Grand Theatre, Lower Hall
• Free entrance + Free drink - Registration needed (Reserve here)
• Language: English

In connection to A TWO DOGS COMPANY's performance DARK at the Grand Theatre Groningen we have invited artist Kris Verdonck, dramaturg Kristof van Baarle, and researchers Nataliia Laba and Claire Swyzen to explore the tensions between presence and absence, real and fake, the human and technology, particularly in times of AI. 

Claire Swyzen (affiliated researcher of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and its Centre for Literature, Intermediality, and Culture) introduces the influence of terms such as “interface”, “database” and “protocol” on developments in performance art in our current computer culture.

Nataliia Laba (assistant professor in digital culture and multimodal communication/human AI at Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen) delves deeper into recent research on the impact of visual-generative AI on artists and designers through their artistic practices as well as the public perceptions of our responsibility in the training and uses of AI.

Moderated by Pieter Verstraete (theatre critic and assistant professor in Art, Culture and Media at the Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen). This event will be audio recorded for a podcast. 

This discussion will connect the threads between art, performance, AI, and computer culture.

SPOT ON! is a lecture series that engages with socially and politically relevant theatre and performance. It aims to generate public dialogue and question the impact of theatre in society. This panel is hosted in collaboration with the Theatre section of the ICOG Research Centre for Arts in Society of the University of Groningen. 

20:00 - 21:15 | DARK 
A performance about the tension between presence and absence, real and fake, human and technology. 

• Grand Theatre, Lower Hall
• Tickets: Regular [€21] | Students & <29 y/o [€15]
• Language: English 

What bodies and life forms are “behind” our screens? And what impact do those screens and digital entities have on our bodies, on our senses, on our sense of reality? Like the human performers, the objects in this performance have an ambiguous status. Are they controlled by the performers or vice versa, or do they move autonomously? Everything seems interconnected and the spectator too will have to take a stand in this haunting world where the concept of reality is called into question.