Romy Moons &

Thomas Claessens

Welcome to the romantic comedy! The genre that is reviled, but secretly enjoyed by all. Just like with junk food. It is not nutritious, but how delicious it tastes! The romcom promises that love is the answer to everything. What a promise! What a prospect! What if, in our society, we see the sweetness of romantic comedy as having radical potential? As medicine against polarization? What if we chose to believe in love and thus soften our cynicism? Could that make the world a better place?

In Life, Actually, a man and a woman meet in the foyer after watching a romcom. In an absurd dialogue about the romcom, they get caught up in the genre themselves. A romcom about a romcom after a romcom.

Romy and Thomas together form STEL, after their debut performance of the same name. STEL writes, creates and performs performances that focus on banal chatter. As creators, they believe that the core lies precisely in the peripheral issues. Therefore, their characters often lose the thread and dwell on trivial details. But in that evasion of the essence, they find each other and occasionally touch on something that transcends the situation.