Six European theatres - Toneelhuis, Berliner Ensemble, Thalia Theatre (Hamburg), Teatro Stabile di Torino, Katona Theatre (Budapest) and Dramaten (Stockholm) - are creating six 20-minute ‘microperformances’ based on The Unification of Europe (1933): a speech by Stefan Zweig, in which he makes an ardent plea for a united Europe. The performances will be shown as a whole on 12 October 2024 at the Salzkammergut 2024 theatre festival in Bad Ischl, Austria - European Capital of Culture 2024. 

Sculpa Me is a performance by Lisaboa Houbrechts & Gorges Ocloo, co-artistic directors and creators of Antwerp's Toneelhuis (Belgium). In a 20-minute solo, Lisaboa Houbrechts, in a yellow dress, gives birth to a black balloon that she squeezes between her legs until the blood splashes out. Yellow, black, red are the colours of the Belgian flag. During this performance, she recites the words ‘Sculpa Me’ (translated: ‘I'm sorry’) under a soundscape created by Gorges Ocloo linking fragments of the Belgian and European national anthems to the expression of regret by Belgian King Filip to Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi in 2020. 

With this physical, visual and musical performance, Lisaboa Houbrechts and Gorges Ocloo depict in a radically metaphorical way how a young generation in Brussels - the capital of the united Europe Stefan Zweig dreamed about in the 1930s - is confronted with a post-colonial guilt born out of the Second World War. 

In the programme of European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024, a central theme runs through the selected theatre, dance and opera performances. The projects seeks new languages and forms of how we deal with the wounds of the past. In that context, Lisaboa Houbrechts and Gorges Ocloo bring an imaginative performance that started after reading Stefan Zweig's text The Unification of Europe and the utopia he imagined.