PISS POOL

Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot

Wed 19 Nov ’25 - Sat 17 Jan ’26

A performance about growing older in a world of endless updates

Wed 19 Nov ’25

Sat 17 Jan ’26

Wed 19 Nov ’25

20:30

Try-out

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Thu 20 Nov ’25

20:30

Try-out

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Fri 21 Nov ’25

20:30

Première

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Sat 22 Nov ’25

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Wed 14 Jan ’26

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Thu 15 Jan ’26

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Fri 16 Jan ’26

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event
Sat 17 Jan ’26

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

Past event

Named after the artwork PISS POOL by Samantha Nye, the performance explores ageism from a feminist perspective. In Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot’s signature hybrid of digital avatars and living bodies, this theatrical video installation delves into the toxic underbelly of capitalist wellness culture—where the female body must remain young, fit and flawless, and where “self-care” no longer means caring for each other, but rather bearing sole responsibility for one’s own (ill) health.

“You look great for your age.”

A harmless compliment? Or a poisonous whisper of a capitalist culture where youth, tightness and fertility are the only desirable states? Where the norm assumes you peak in your thirties, after which your productivity, health, and social relevance inevitably decline?

In PISS POOL, you enter a TikTok mansion for the elderly: a seemingly luxurious wellness resort filled with massage chairs, beauty corners and sugar-free power drinks. Here, women film themselves performing hyper-modern rejuvenation rituals under the guidance of an influencer. But in this house of mirrors where time bends and refracts, no one truly owns her body.

With PISS POOL, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot continue the trajectory begun with their theatre hit BIMBO (2011), where the pornified, objectified female body took centre stage. Together with theatre maker and visual artist Lisa Schamlé, they now construct a disorienting wellness-world in which the concept of (life)time is twisted into a space where women—clothed or naked—reclaim time itself.

Première: fri 21 nov. 2025
Sat. 22 nov. part of the We Are Public- program
Please note: This performance depicts medical procedures and childbirth

Credits

concept Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot direction Bianca van der Schoot performers, creators Suzan Boogaerdt, Ria Marks, Lisa Schamlé and in various constellations: Miquê Hamden, Hetty Hurkmans Vermeulen, Marianne Smit, Tanja Florence Uneken, Martje Verhagen content advice Lisa Schamlé set design Katrin Bombe costume design Lotte Goos video design Rodrik Biersteker lighting design Julian Maiwald sound design Wessel Schrik assistant director Agnes Lassen costume assistant Sam Wissink image Lisa Schamlé

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In de media

"Geslaagd absurdistisch schouwspel van doorgeslagen tittok schoondheidsidealen." ●●●●● NRC

"In Piss Pool van Boogaerdt/Van der Schoot wordt met vrolijke kracht terrein teruggewonnen. De influencercultus van de eeuwige jeugd krijgt een spectaculair tegenbeeld." De Groene Amsterdammer

"Het is aangenaam huiveren bij de bodyhorror van ‘Piss Pool’, over het ouder wordende vrouwenlichaam" ★★★★ de Volkskrant

Ontregelende performance over het oudere vrouwenlichaam en de online verjongingscultuur. Theaterkrant

About BVDS

The artist-duo Suzan Boogaerdt and Bianca van der Schoot have been working together ever since they graduated from the Mime Department of the Amsterdam University of the Arts in 1999. Despite their work being deeply embedded in the anarchistic tradition of the Dutch Mime, they have now built a practice that combines several art disciplines.*

Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot’s work has often been described as physical performance and video installation in one—denoting a synergy between the performing arts and the visual arts. Their work lends itself to the grey space, a zone between the black box and the white cube, stretching both theatrical- and museal rules and conventions. The artist-duo creates liminal spaces in which the homo digitalis can train its bodily perception so as to engage with new (virtual) worlds coming into existence. Through a gender-conscious lens they explore how various realities, be it virtual- or dreamworlds, interface with the human user.

Their work questions who or what governs the apparatus of the (human) body, how that affects the nature of consciousness, and, consequently, the worlding of multiple realities. They explore corporeality in all its manifestations and play with the idea of a body as an object, a thing amongst things. At this juncture, the presence of the human performer is not necessarily at the core of a piece. Their work often includes masked figures, cyborgs, dolls, avatars, and semi-mechanized characters. It is a form of alienation that makes wonder about ‘What makes us human?’ and reconnect with the creative power of Life itself.