Archive

current works

Ifigeneia in aulis

An army, stranded in the Port of Aulis, is unable to sail because of a lack of wind. Thousands of soldiers are waiting for change: frustrated, full of testosteron and fight. The stage is filled with a hundred shooting dummies, cannon fodder drawn up like the terracotta army in China. Among the dummies is a replica of a mobile police post, where the army leader can hide out of fear for the crowd.

Stillen

A visual performance about people who need each other; vulnerable groping bodies reach out to hold each other for a short while. The floor is covered with 37000 pieces of glycerin soap. They nourish the skin of the performers. But when the floor gets wet, the performers have nothing to hold on to.

After life

In the hereafter, people are asked to name the most important moment of their lives. The stage setting of this opera is a distribution centre, a transit port for hundreds of pieces of furniture, taken from Amsterdam’s street refuse. Two glass projection screens function as ‘scanners’, the projections give meaning to the pieces of furniture.

Crave

Four people weigh the value of their lives. They talk about the longing for love and the possibility of suicide. They scream, cry, sing and calm down. A cold store is placed against the stand, directly in front of the audience. Gradually the cold light leaves the container.

Tape

Two friends are seated in a hotel room. One tries to persuade the other to confess the raping of his ex girl friend. The hotel room has been closed off by roll-down shutters. The spectator can see what is happening inside the room by means of security cameras. The characters appear suspicious from the very start. But then the shutters are opened and the projected burden of proof disappears.

Zonde

A montage performance about the seven deadly sins. A theatre hall is converted into a church. A hothouse is situated in the audience, as an equivalent to paradise. The naked actors are hidden from view by a large amount of incense. But then the door is opened, and the smoke leaves the hothouse.

De val

In Albert Camus’s text a French lawyer drifts through the underbelly of Amsterdam’s red-light district. Spectators are seated at a round neon-lit bar together with the actor. Dutch gin is served. On top of the bar a large number of ice blocks are melting. Slowly the image of a ‘crying’ bar emerges.

Leeftijd

A montage performance about time passing by. From a hole in the ceiling of the theatre, a large quantity of polystyrene foam balls crash onto the stage, like an hourglass being emptied. Actors and props disappear and reappear in this artificial snow landscape.

Moeder Afrika

A performance for children about slavery. The audience is surrounded by a storage rack. Coloured people, locked up in cages, are reduced to commodities. When a large cloth is hanging over the rack, the audience itself is locked up in a stockroom.

Pop

A montage performance about the pop industry in which image is more important than personality. The pop star is in a cage/boxing ring located in the audience: he is both victim and idol. The whole space is surrounded by mirrors, the artist is duplicated infinitely.

Liefdeslounge

A “sugar sweet” performance about love. A shabby space of wooden blocks is a hangout for the young actors. The feeling of noncommittal infatuation and horniness slowly changes into that of unconditional love. A fragrant bath of melted beeswax solidifies during the performance.

Karkas

From isolated sounds a compelling composition is developing, like a machine that is slowly starting up. Spectators watch the explosion of a concert grand piano displayed in reverse on a projection screen: at the start an abandoned landscape, flying strings, hammers and pieces of wood, after an hour the grand piano undamaged. Remains of the explosion lie between the orchestra on cutting tables.