Lodewijk

Name: Lodewijk - Sofie Kramer
Start: 2026-02-21T21:00:00+01:00
Location: Frascati, Amsterdam

Sofie Kramer

Fri 20 Feb ’26 and Sat 21 Feb ’26

Hypnotic duet between life and death.

Fri 20 Feb ’26

and

Sat 21 Feb ’26

Fri 20 Feb ’26

21:00

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 2

Tickets

Sat 21 Feb ’26

21:00

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 2

Tickets

“A woman knows instinctively when things must die and when things must live." Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Lodewijk tells the absurd story of a woman who suddenly finds herself stuck with a baby in formaldehyde. What the fuck?!

The baby’s name is Lodewijk, and he has been sleeping in a glass coffee jar for over fifty years. This strange, wondrous being confronts her with a painful memory: years ago, she secretly had an abortion. Face to face with Lodewijk, she realizes that this secret wants to come out. In a darkly comic and confrontational stream of words, she breaks through her shame, with Lodewijk as her silent counterpart.

In her new solo performance, theatre maker and performer Sofie Kramer searches for hidden desires and ancient demons, in the twilight zone between control and surrender. From a hyper-personal perspective, she explores grief and the contradictory entanglement of life and death. What does it mean to bring a human being into the world? What kind of world, for god’s sake, puts babies in coffee jars? Lodewijk, am I your mother now?

Lodewijk is an intoxicating mix of text, physical theatre, music, and visual art. With a dark sense of humor and equal sensitivity, Sofie takes on taboos around sex, death, and birth. Vulnerable, fiery, and brutally honest.

Please note: this performance features a foetus in formaldehyde. It includes nudity and deals with themes such as abortion, sexuality, and death
Dutch spoken with English surtitles

Credits

concept, text, direction, performance Sofie Kramer movement coach Keren Levi dramaturgy Lindertje Mans scenography and light design Hendrik Walther composition and sound design Luke Deane costume design and campaign image Sara Schoon writing coach Thomas Verbogt final direction Hanna van Mourik Broekman voice liberation Rosanne Groenendijk production Podium Bloos co-production Via Zuid and Circuit Oproer residencies Werkplaats Zwolse Theaters, Podium Bloos, Verkadefabriek and De Grote Post marketing Cultpr thanks to BNG Cultuurfonds, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and NORMA Fonds

About Sofie Kramer

Sofie Kramer is a director, performer, and writer. In 2019, she graduated from the Directing program at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts. Driven by a deep love of music and visual arts, she developed a unique, highly visual theatrical idiom in which text, musicality, and physicality play a key role.

The struggling body is a recurring theme in her work: the body fighting against time, against gravity, against the gaze of others. She depicts this struggle in interdisciplinary performances, constantly experimenting with new forms. She previously studied at the Acting Program at the Utrecht School of the Arts and earned her Bachelor's degree in Literary Studies from the University of Amsterdam.

Lodewijk is the full-length theatrical version of the short solo SCOLD, which Sofie created for the Café Theater Festival in 2023. She won the jury prize for it. The jury praised her powerful performance and called the performance "an inescapable emotional experience" and "an important production that deserves a wide audience."