Tim Natens is a writer, creator and performer who lives and works in Brussels. His work often presents the individual as the protagonist; the everyman who gets caught up in the machinations of international politics. This led him to conceive and portray characters like the British weapons inspector David Kelly in the play Kelly (2021) and Gerard Soete—the police commissioner who in 1961 was tasked with making the body of the executed Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba disappear—in the play Tand des Tijds (2024). Both plays were written by Natens himself.
In 2017 Tim Natens graduated from RITCS in Brussels. During his training, it became clear to him that he wanted to hone his skills as an actor and a performer, while maintaining a major focus on creating his own material, as well as on developing a clear and personal voice and on building up a career as a theatre maker. He did his acting internship in the play Oeps (2017-2018) by Theater Antigone. Previously, he performed in An Odyssey (2016), directed by Stef Lernous at the ITs Festival, in Amsterdam
With his first theatrical solo, Kelly (a production by Theater Antigone)—a play about the weapons inspector David Kelly, who questioned the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and who was found dead a few months later amidst unclear circumstances—Natens has been touring around Flanders since 2021. In April 2023, the English-language version premiered at the KVS in Brussels.
During his residency at Moussem, Natens continues his work on Tand des Tijds, which will premiere at Monty, in Antwerp, on October 17, 2024. In this piece, the artist takes a closer look at a dark chapter of history and touches upon a highly sensitive topic that lives on well into the present. The relations between Belgium and Congo, between former oppressor and oppressed, are still relevant in the current social debates around decolonization and racism.
Click HERE to see the trailer of Kelly.
Photo: Sam David
