Etuwe Bright Junior, Ahilan Ratnamohan and Josse De Pauw make a simple but very complicated attempt to get Junior to learn lyrics from De Pauw. Junior came to Belgium to become a professional footballer, but failed. Ahilan is Australian with a Tamil background, based in Belgium. And Josse? Lives at home and has been a celebrated maker for decades. ‘Josse Jnr.’ is their examination of language, how to learn and (not) master it, and the inequality that results. Is Flemishness transferable?

At the end of ‘Look On the Bright Side’, Ahilan Ratnamohan’s previous play starring Etuwe Bright Junior, ex-soccer player Junior tells a Flemish audience: ‘A prison guard opens our cell and calls my name. (…) Because I was reading, time has become infinite. I am reading a book by a guest called Josse De Pauw. (…) I am called and asked to come to an office where they explain to me that from now on I am free to go, provided I go out and do something good for society. I smile and tell them: ‘Don’t worry… I will become a star. I promise.’

It is there that ‘Josse Jnr.’ picks up the thread. This time, Etuwe Bright Junior is on stage with Ahilan Ratnamohan as well as Josse De Pauw. They make a simple but very complicated attempt to learn Junior texts from the Peacock, asking questions about who can become a star and under what conditions.

‘Josse Jnr.’ is an examination of language, and the learning of language, and the inevitable power relations that result. What can Josse De Pauw’s texts, stylistically so European and abstract, mean on another body? How can these texts and aesthetics – prominent part of the Flemish canon – reach another poetry? Is Flemishness transferable?