She was born for happiness

Veronika Abdul-Visocka / Frascati Producties

Tue 15 Sep - Tue 3 Nov

An attempt to stay with pain, rather than looking away.

Tue 15 Sep

Tue 3 Nov

Only events in our venues
Tue 3 Nov

20:00

Frascati Producties on tour

Grand Theater Groningen

To wishlist

External Ticketsale
Tue 15 Sep

20:00

Try-out

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 4

Past event
Wed 16 Sep

20:00

Try-out

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 4

Past event
Thu 17 Sep

20:00

Première

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 4

Past event
Fri 18 Sep

20:00

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 4

Past event
Sat 19 Sep

20:00

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 4

Past event

She was born for happiness explores the relationship between self-harm and the promise of happiness. This performance approaches self-harm as a response to structural violence rather than an individual problem, by critically addressing environments that demand constant positivity, success, and happiness. Places where pain, doubt, or the inability to belong, are made invisible.

Through theatre and new media, the work is recreating living spaces in which acts of self-harm have taken place. A porcelain collection, a tablecloth and a vase of flowers suddenly become silent witnesses. Writer and theatre director Veronika Abdul-Visocka explores the cracks in environments that are designed for “the good life”. The work is made in close collaboration with composer and theatre maker Patsy Lassbo.

While the work is rooted in the authors' personal experiences, it communicates with several literary works, films and visual arts pieces. By doing so, the makers strive to create a space to speak about experiences of self-harm without falling into violent self-exposure, or romanticization of pain.

She was born for happiness is an attempt to stay with pain, rather than looking away.

Language: English
Duration: 75 min
Stroboscopic effects, smoke

Part of

Frascati Producties 26/27

Credits

concept, text, direction Veronika Abdul-Visocka ligths, music, dramaturgy Patsy Lassbo performance Florence Minder video Kristian Møller-Munar scenography Veronika Abdul-Visocka, Patsy Lassbo external advisor Marta Keil editorial advice Nicolas Lange handcrafted dress Džeina Lubāne 3D printing Ed Douwes co-produced by Grand Theatre Groningen supported by the residence programme at PACT Zollverein, co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia with thanks to Swedish Arts Grants, Zahra Mohseni

Press

"Fairy-tale-like stories of women suffering from life really hit home." Theaterkrant

About Veronika Abdul-Visocka

Veronika Abdul-Visocka (Latvia, 1997) is a theatre maker, writer and performer. In 2025 she graduated from the master’s programme at DAS Theatre. Her work emerges from a power-critical, hybrid perspective. Shaped by the multiple languages, religions and political systems she was raised within, Veronika explores fluidity, multiversality and the capacity for transformation.

She weaves personal narratives and fiction with ideas from philosophy, literature, and poetry in her work. From this layered approach, she creates performances in which different realities coexist and question one another. She collaborates with artists from various disciplines, such as composers and videoartists, bringing together diverse voices, forms, and media on stage.

About Patsy Lassbo

Patsy Lassbo (Sweden, 1988) is a composer and theatre maker whose work seeks out the contradictions, ambiguities and paradoxes within the contemporary human condition. Their practice critically and playfully composes all of the theatre apparatus, engaging with its inherent tensions between the monumental and the ephemeral. Lassbo is trained in Sound design for Performing Arts (Stockholm University of the Arts), Theatre (DAS Theatre) and Audio Engineering (SAE Institute), and has contributed to over 35 works presented across the Nordics and Europe.