Aalst

Aalst is a documentary play written by Pol Heyvaert and Dimitri Verhulst. Aalst is a legal drama discussing the killings of two children committed by their parents in the Belgian town of Aalst in 1999.

The play Aalst is founded in the authentic event from the Belgian small town of Aalst, where a married couple was tried for having killed their two small children while staying in a hotel in town. The director Pol Heyvaert personally wrote the text for the production in collaboration with the playwright Dimitri Verhulst.

The text material in Aalst was found in transcripts from parts of the trial against the couple.

The Norwegian theatre venue Avant Garden described the play like this: "Aalst is so-called faction theatre, a mix of fact and fiction. It is a story based on reality, in which testimonies and interviews are recited word by word, but it also includes newly written material. The play doesn't take a stand, but adds realism to the cruel acts."