Holland Festival: A play for the living in a time of extinction

Drawing both on her personal ideas and on scientific research, she gives voice to our shared anxiety and despair about the world’s situation and connects the death of the mother with the fear of humankind disappearing.

In her search for a way to make theatre in a responsible, energy-efficient way, theatre director Katie Mitchell developed a concept for a piece where only the text and a set of rules for the performance go on the road. The piece is performed with a local cast and crew in each country. One of the rules is that all the energy used for the performance has to be generated in a way that the audience can see.

At the Holland Festival, it is up to director Floor Houwink ten Cate to realise this challenging concept in an original and smart way. Actress Joy Wielkens plays the role of dramaturge and brings the disconcerting text to life. It is the intention of author Miranda Rose Hall and director Katie Mitchell that the text be adapted as much as possible to the local situation by the local translator and creators. With their permission, the original text has therefore been adapted by Houwink ten Cate and provided with text contributions by Wielkens.

Opera composer and singer Annelinde Bruijs is composing the show. Floor Houwink ten Cate and Annelinde Bruijs are working continuously on a new, socio-political opera form in which they question the classical notions of opera and transform them into large, vulnerable and political gestures.