Biography
Renée Goethijn studied the creator’s program at the Ritcs School of Arts in Brussels, where she explored the boundaries between theater and visual arts. She follows her intuition to create visual, absurd performances in which scenography often forms the core of the production. In doing so, she creates bizarre parallel realities that scrutinize the principles and mechanisms shaping our social reality.
Since graduating, Renée’s artistic work has consisted of a continuous interplay between an individual trajectory, collective practices, and other collaborations. Together with several former Ritcs students, she founded K.A.K. in 2014—a horizontal collective of 16 theater makers, tinkerers, thinkers, and other tricksters, searching for alternative forms of creation, presentation, and collectivity. K.A.K. has produced performances, one-time theatrical events, sessions, and encounters. In recent years, Renée has worked on Office de Tourisme/Agence de Voyage (2016), Life, Death and Television (2018), Snøw (2019), and The Unheard (2020), among others.
During her studies, her short solo works were programmed at various festivals: Dark Tourism (2011) was performed at the Cultuurmarkt in Antwerp, and Kier (2012) was presented at Kipfestival in Ghent. Her triptych To get properly confused you have to put your head underwater/Ufo’s/Two things to do and two more things to do was selected for TAZ Jong Werk (2013).
After graduating, she was given a one-year residency at KcnOna within a young creators’ program. There, she collaborated on Katja Dreyer’s Kroniek (2013) and concluded with her own creation, Reconstruction of the day I left (2014).
In 2013, she was a guest performer and creator at Bookers&Hookers. At KWP Pianofabriek and Monty, she co-directed No Use For Binoculars (2015) and Totally (2017) with Dries Gijsels. She also directed the youth productions KERET! at Bronks (2018) and The secrets of the universe are hidden under a pile of pigeon poop at Larf! (2019).
During the 2021-2022 season, her new production MANNAHATTA premiered (2022), and she created the participatory performance Soep Opera in collaboration with Katinka de Jonge (2022) as part of Openbare Werken in Viernulvier.
Additionally, she frequently works as a (lead) director for various companies and theaters. With Compagnie Barbarie and Theater Stap, she created Mise en Place at HetPaleis, Bronks, and Kopergietery (2021). She directed and co-wrote Wezen by Maxime Waladi at Fabuleus and Action Zoo Humain (2023) and contributed to Jackie by Lien Wildemeersch at Theater Malpertuis (2023).
She also served as final director for Studio Sheherazade by Haider Altimimi and Gorges Ocloo (2018), What The God by Anouk Friedli and Guus Diepenmaat (2021), Voorjaarsontwaken by Wolf Wolf (2022), Spindle by Oona
Libens (2022), De Puberfluisteraar and Jeanne by Sanderijn Helsen & De Studio (2023-2025), Piéton by Kenneth Berth/Het nieuwstedelijk & De Spil (2024), Residu by Menzo Kircz and Eleonore Van Godtsenhoven (2024), and Oh Deer by Gina Beuk & Bronks (2024).
Renée is also active within Kloppend Hert, where she is one of the core mentors of the artistic platform Jong Gewei. Additionally, she works as a lecturer and head of department in the drama program at RITCS.
In residentie TOTALLY
10.02.2017 – 10.02.2017
In TOTALLY, Dries Gijsels and Renée Goethijn try to create a performance in which nothing can go wrong. A preventive solution is provided for every possible problem that could arise. The possibility of an empty hall, a forgotten piece of text that changes the whole meaning, fire, a flood, the death of an actor on stage, everything is covered. Together with performers David Chazam, Lotte Diependaele, Micha Goldberg and Femke Stallaert, Gijsels and Goethijn examine how far they can go in this.
They start from the question: if nothing can go wrong, can anything substantial still happen? Can we still deal with the fundamental uncertainty that comes with life? How imbued have we become with the belief that reality is completely controllable? Do we still dare to allow the unexpected? Do we still dare to get lost?
TOTALLY shows a reflection of a touristised world where chance and uncertainty are systematically shunned for the sake of comfort, convenience and efficiency. So expect a highly uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable and utterly inefficient depiction of what can happen, when nothing more can happen.
In residentie 4 Women Getting Sick
07.04.2025 – 25.04.2025
When a doctor’s visit turns into an endless medical limbo, four figures end up in a space where the boundaries are blurred between operating table, body, and landscape. Echoes of past and future intertwine. The players seek a way out of a bizarre cycle of predation and exploitation.
4 Women Getting Sick presents a magical-realist universe that, through a visual and physical theatrical language, explores the link between body and land. We examine how both have been subjected to a long history of conquest, oppression, and exhaustion. Inspired by surrealism and sacred ecology, Renée searches for the liberating aspect hidden in the primal connection between the female body and the earth.
4 Women Getting Sick is a performance where scenography is used as both a storytelling medium and a co-actor. It is an enchanting and unsettling theatrical experience that provokes reflection, where absurdity, humor, and existential questions come together to invite us to rediscover the world and our role in it. An absurd ode to female territory.
4WGS will premiere in November 2025 at Kaaitheater/Gc De Kriekelaar. Additional planned venues include Viernulvier, Theater Antigone, Monty, De Grote Post, and CCHA Hasselt.
