Olympique Dramatique

Olympique Dramatique is a theatre collective with two permanent members, the actors and theatre makers Tom Dewispelaere and Stijn Van Opstal. At the time of its formation in 1999, Ben Segers and Geert Van Rampelberg were also part of the core team. Olympique Dramatique started out as an autonomous actors’ collective, working independently of a director with like-minded souls in varying line-ups. Olympique Dramatique attracted attention with brazen, physical productions packed with humour, virtuoso linguistic devices and violence. Pieces like De Krippel (2001), De Jossen (2004) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2006) portrayed closed, introspective communities.

In 2006, Guy Cassiers took Olympique Dramatique under the wing of Toneelhuis. He would also be the first director with whom the collective decided to work: in 2008, Olympique Dramatique and Guy Cassiers made De geruchten (The Rumours) after the novel of the same name by Hugo Claus. In the following years, the collective created productions with directors Raven Ruëll (Titus Andronicus, 2009), Bart Meuleman (In de strafkolonie / Het hol, 2010) and Pieter De Buysser (Het litteken lip, 2010). Bij het kanaal naar links (2011) was their first collaboration with the Dutch film and theatre director Alex van Warmerdam, followed five years after that by Het Gelukzalige (2016). Between times, Olympique Dramatique also continued to make shows without a director, often with theatre collective friends like tg STAN (Het wijde land, 2013 & Poquelin II, 2017) and LAZARUS (Niets is onmogelijk, 2012).

With or without a director, with small or large casts, in musicals (Adams Appels, 2009) or text theatre – the connecting thread throughout their work always remained a great love of the actor. Gradually, they also developed a love of solid repertoire pieces that flourish under attentive, actor-focused direction, which Stijn Van Opstal and Tom Dewispelaere did for the first time in 2014 with AUGUST ergens op de vlakte. In 2017, they tackled Risjaar Drei and in 2019, they made Angels in America: once again, highly acclaimed productions that packed houses throughout the land.

Olympique Dramatique likes to tell stories for a wide audience and with the largest possible group of actors, from different generations. Van Opstal and Dewispelaere still feel that the most powerful and moving gesture you can make with theatre is the presentation of a person who is performing on stage. In terms of script, they often fall back on classical repertoire, such as with Wachten op Godot (2020) and Vijand van het volk (2022).

In the 2023-2024 season, they were back on stage themselves. Tom Dewispelaere created and performed the touching solo Alle schone dingen (Every Brilliant Thing). Stijn Van Opstal played in Klytaimnḗstra, again a collaboration between Olympique Dramatique and STAN.

In 2024, Olympique Dramatique surprised the public with a production that turned our way of experiencing theatre completely upside down. In [meeuw], Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull was translated and performed in its entirety in Flemish Sign Language by a mixed cast of deaf and hearing actors. The production was selected for the national theatre festivals in both Flanders and the Netherlands, and won the Theo d’Or for most pioneering theatre presentation.

Especially for the Bye Bye Bourla festival, Olympique Dramatique dusted off their 2025 hit, The Lieutenant of Inishmore – the second part of Martin McDonagh’s Aran Islands Trilogy, a merciless satire on extreme violence.

In the 2025-2026 season, Tom Dewispelaere directed Voor het pensioen (Een komedie van de Duitse ziel) by Thomas Bernhard (English title: The Eve of Retirement: A Comedy of the German Soul): a black, vicious and simultaneously hilarious comedy about a society that remains haunted by its far-right past.

After the successful revival of The Lieutenant of Inishmore in 2025, the first part of the Aran Islands Trilogy will also be put to the test before today’s audience in June 2027. In the Cripple of Inishmaan, Martin McDonagh takes us to an isolated and gossipy community on a remote Irish island. With De Krippel, its adaptation of that story, Olympique Dramatique made its debut at the Bourla Theatre in 2002. A quarter of a century later, how will Billy the Cripple fare? The original cast will be joined for the occasion by none other than William Boeva.

As of 2002, Olympique Dramatique is part of the collective artistic directorship of Toneelhuis, together with Lisaboa Houbrechts, Görges Ocloo, FC Bergman and Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe.