“Works And Days” By The Fc Bergman Collective, Edinburgh International Festival

Works and Days the latest production of the FC Bergman collective, played at the Lyceum Theatre as part of The Edinburgh International Festival from 7 to 10 August. The show includes stunning visuals, many of which wink at famous pastoral paintings, music inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, played by musicians on stage, and a sequence of short scenes performed by a cast of eight actors. For Works and Days this Flemish collective draws on the eponymous poem by the 8^th century BC Greek poet Hesiod, that deals with agriculture, morality and our relationship with the land. During the seventy-minute running time, not a word is spoken.

The show kicks off with the performers coming together to hack away at the stage floor and throwing debris in the air. A live chicken is brought on, and a large egg is produced and put on display. The performers throw hundreds of brightly coloured seeds into the air, suggesting the possibility of nurturing new life which is immediately contrasted with a small sack, blood trickling out – a sacrificed chicken perhaps? The sack is hung at the top of a tall pole, and the performers, like a close-knit ancient community, carry out a solemn funeral ritual. The leitmotiv of life and death continues throughout the work.

In another scene, the group is determined to erect a scaffold, creating a kind of shelter or home, which is later dismantled. The process of creating and destroying is also repeated, reminding me of the wars being waged in different parts of the world at this very moment and the need there will be, once they are over, to rebuild these countries.

Werken en dagen [EN: Works and Days], by FC Bergman, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025. Photo credit: Kurt Van der Elst.

A fake animal enters the stage, clothed in grey. From its rear end one of the performers pulls out a mysterious figure and carries it away, causing the animal to go berserk, showing its anger at the separation. The figure lies motionless on the stage for a few seconds, making one wonder whether it is dead or alive. Then it starts moving imperceptibly. It turns out to be a little girl, with beautiful, long blonde hair. The group proceeds to pull long strips of material of different colours out of the animal’s belly, draping them carefully over the scaffolding. For a moment they take delight in creating something aesthetically beautiful. The fake animal is then stripped of its outer shell, only to reveal an almost naked man, who takes hold of the little girl’s hand and they walk around the stage. The imagery, with its mix of human and animal, seems to underscore that we can engineer whatever hybrids we want using present-day technology, a far cry from Hesiod’s world, where man lived immersed in the natural world.

Another stunning, but sombre stage picture features an old-fashioned steam engine, billowing clouds of smoke. Naked figures recline around it. The engine suggests the age of machinery during the industrial revolution, when millions of people were distanced from the land and countryside. The apathy of these static figures, who in previous scenes had been part and parcel of nature, underscores their alienation.

Werken en dagen [EN: Works and Days], by FC Bergman, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025. Photo credit: Kurt Van der Elst.

In the final scene, the lighting dims and rain starts falling, the world has gone very dark. The small community of people, whom we watched creating, but also destroying, has disappeared. Alone onstage, a woman dressed in black, played by Fumiyo Ikeda, tries in vain to pull a ramshackle plough out of the mud. She tries, over and over, showing enormous fatigue, but in the end collapses. We watch as she thrusts her hands into the mud, only to find more mud. A robotic dog, with a little light on its forehead, enters the stage, tripping around and scrutinising the woman. Its presence is entertaining, but also sinister. As it moves downstage centre, staring out at the audience, it brings the show to an end.

Works and Days ends on a very bleak note. In the continued silence, one can hear a loud cry of alarm on the part of these young theatre makers about the way the world is going. Their productions I have seen so far, such as The Sheep Song and The Land of Nod are thought-provoking and challenging, and Works and Days is no exception.

Werken en dagen [EN: Works and Days], by FC Bergman, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025. Photo credit: Kurt Van der Elst.

Creative & Production Teams

Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans, Thomas Verstraeten & Marie Vinck (FC Bergman)

Directors, Dramaturgs & Set Designers

Joachim Badenhorst & Sean Carpio

Composers & Musicians

An d’Huys

Costume Designer

Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans & Ken Hioco

Lighting Designers

Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans & Ken Hioco