SPRING: Modesta (play of language & lips)

Known for their love of non-theatrical texts and a physical acting style, Ooms & Jäger team up with performers Rosie Sommers, Christine De Smedt, and Arthur Loontjens to breathe new life into the coming-of-age genre. Inspired by Goliarda Sapienza's The Art of Joy, written in the 1960s but only published decades later, the performance embodies the uncompromising desires, willpower, and joy of Modesta—the titular heroine who creates her own rules and defies the moral boundaries of her time. A celebration of freedom, transformation, and the art of living on your own terms, just as Modesta does.

Anna Franziska Jäger (1996, she/her) is a theatre maker, actress, and performer. In 2020, she received her master’s degree in Drama from KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent. Together with Nathan Ooms, she created the performances As a Matter of Fiction (2018), Some Things Last A Long Time (2019), Bartlebabe (2020), Ambient Theatre Fury (2022), and most recently DONKEY (2023).
As a performer, she has worked with Michiel Vandevelde, Tibaldus, Carly Rae Heathcote, Hannah De Meyer, Sophia Rodriguez, and Nathan for his graduation performance at P.A.R.T.S., The Honey House (2021), among others. As a film actress, she appeared in Dorothée Van Den Berghe's film My Queen Karo (2009), Eva Cools' Cleo (2019), and in short films by Rand Abou Fakher and Marieke Elzerman. She is part of the performance platform Ne mosquito pas and sporadically writes texts for Etcetera and Sabzian.

Nathan Ooms (1996, he/him) obtained his master’s degree in Drama from KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent in 2019. During his studies, he did an Erasmus exchange at the Academy for Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam. Afterwards, he followed STUDIOS, the Master's programme in choreography at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, where he graduated with The Honey House in 2021. Together with Anna Franziska Jäger, he created the performances DONKEY (2023), Ambient Theatre Fury (2022), and Bartlebabe (2021), among others. Nathan did an internship with Ula Sickle, where he collaborated on the performance Relay (2018) and performed in Marc Vanrunxt's performances Drawings (2019) and Hyena Hyena (2023). He also performed in works by Rosie Sommers, Ezra Veldhuis & Bosse Provoost, and Lydia McGlinchey. He is part of the performance platform Ne mosquito pas.

In 2023 they performed their production Ambient Theatre Fury at SPRING.

This performance is made possible by Ammodo – Foundation for Arts, Architecture and Science