"The blind poet", produced by Jan Lauwers, is probably the most remarkable creation of this FIBA edition.

The blind poet is an integral aesthetic experience that transcends the stage and its conventions. The show is probably the most remarkable of the X IFBA. The creation of Belgian artist Jan Lauwers and the Needcompany is articulated around many movements. Its main element is focused on seven "profiles" of members of the company, which succeed one other during two hours and a half.

On stage, there are seven nationalities, with just as many actors in a biographical immersion to support it with not only their family tree, but also by showing the impact of the stories on their identities. Speaking of one's origins automatically evokes the human condition and its violent nature. And theater is a field made by inner violence in sacrifice since its very beginnings. How is a performer/actor/entertainer sacrificed in representation after representation, in a ritual that goes back a thousand years and keeps on going?

The stories of the seven biographies in "The blind poet" consume the spectator and do not let him go. At the beginning of the show, Grace Ellen Barkey, founding choreographer of the Needcompany, narrates her road from Indonesia up to her marriage with Jan Lauwers in Belgium. She speaks about Lynch syndrome, an illness she suffers from, which links her to a genetic predisposition to cancer. This tragic aspect of her life blends with other zones of the show in which humor takes its rightful place.

Jan Lauwers has created a show that blends dance, theater, music and visual arts. Founded in 1986, the Needcompany is a theatrical company, but also a respectable rock band. In the orchestra pit of the Martín Coronado Theatre, the musicians are the protagonists of the company who, after having abandoned their instruments, tell their story one by one.

A common element shows up in many of these profiles: the figure of the Syrian poet Abu al 'ala al Ma'arri (973-1058), whose nickname gave its title to the show. It’s not an anthropological eccentricity. During his life, Al Ma'arri (973-1058) questioned religious concepts, Muslim and Christian alike. He believed in the transcendence of man, not caring about the religious convictions of his era. During these days of the crisis of multiculturalism in Europe, this show implements a concept of rupture, not in the politically correct sense of integration, but by taking a step back: by looking at the problem at its origin and trying to understand it better.