Bringing together hypocritical saints, deceitful fortune tellers, and honest charlatans, it balances between the theatricality of intense mystical rituals and the clumsiness of cheap YouTube vanishing acts.

For centuries, religion played a meaning-making role. For many, it was not a matter of belief, but a given, as natural as taking a shit. Today, believing is often an individual choice. The market can fill in this gap. How do we engage with religious traditions when they so often rely on forms of discipline and control? And what if that is precisely their appeal?

Simon Van Schuylenbergh runs the cabaret anal pompidou. In Dark Habits, he uses exaggeration and perversion to translate the intimacy and chaotic energy born on a small scale into a do-it-yourself-pilgrimage for the main stage.

In the 2025-2026 season, Simon van Schuylenbergh worked in the Toneelhuis Ateliers on Dark Habits. The show premieres in the summer of 2026 at the Theater Aan Zee festival.