The Lobster Shop tells the story of Axel and Theresa. His son dies as a result of a stupid accident. His sorrow destroys everything, and when no therapy seems to help and his wife leaves him, Axel decides to commit suicide.

On the day he has chosen he puts on his best suit and by way of farewell goes to his favourite restaurant, ‘The Lobster Shop’, to eat just one more lobster with armorican sauce. But the waiter trips and the lobster with its armorican sauce ends up on Axel’s white suit. In the fraction of a second while Axel is watching the sauce land on his white suit, his ritual is destroyed and he sees his whole life blowing up in his face.

The Lobster Shop is the description of this fraction of a second.

For Jan Lauwers, Axel’s tragedy is a means by which to raise the question of humanity and dehumanisation, and he argues the beauty of the imperfect and the unpredictable.

"This play was written in the solitude of hotel rooms, the television always on. Cynical realism and romantic sentimentality increasingly form the main accent in just about every conversation carried on today, and are therefore an inevitable component of this play. I have wallowed in them with pleasure and sincerely hope that the end of mankind is not just around the corner."
(Jan Lauwers)