Bart Meuleman (1965) is a playwright, essayist, poet and Toneelhuis theatre-maker. Querido has published two books of his poetry, hulp (2004) and omdat ik ziek werd (2008) and a book about pop music, De donkere kant van de zon (2009). He writes children's books about the captivatingly sad character Mijnheertje Kokhals. With the De Zweep theatre collective, he made De smerige trilogie (1999-2001). He has a highly unusual collection of scripts and stage productions to his name: Maison fragile (2004, in cooperation with Abke Haring), Martens (2006) and The Bult and the Beautiful (2007). In 2010 he adapted and directed two stories by Franz Kafka for Toneelhuis: In de strafkolonie (In the Penal Colony) and Het hol (The Burrow). A little later the Theaterfestival selected Gregoria, a play directed by Meuleman based on the novel of the same name by Maurice Gilliams (KVS, 2011). Meanwhile, Duts, a television series made by Bart Meuleman and Herwig Ilegems, became a cult success. In 2012 Meuleman turned De man in de mist, a story by Maurice Gilliams, into intimate music theatre. He injected that same élan into his sultry play Half elf zomeravond, based on Marguerite Duras’ Dix heures et demie du soir en été. He ended the 2012-2013 season on a more boisterous note with Desperado (Kas & de Wolf). In January 2014 Bart Meuleman directed his stage adaptation of De verwondering (Wonder), Hugo Claus’s first great novel written in 1962. In January 2015 Meuleman looked for intimacy again in Sirene, a play which plumbs the depths of erotic fantasy. In the 2015-2016 season he staged Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.
