Erasmus Mackenna

Erasmus graduated from the Directing department at the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam in 2021, where they now work as a mentor. Their graduation consisted of stagings of Crave by Sarah Kane and Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller. They have worked as director and designer with the likes of Mathieu Ball, Big Brave and Tos Nieuwenhuizen, and as assistant director with Ivo van Hove, Eline Arbo, Espen Hjort and Joe Douglas, among others.

Erasmus considers themself an outsider in many respects, for instance being a non-binary, transgender and neurodivergent individual. Their work is fundamentally intersectional and gives voice to outsiders and their struggles. In this sense, the work also has an educational function for those for whom these aspects are not part of their daily lives.

From the conviction that humanity in its current form is doomed to end in the near future, Erasmus is working on an oeuvre that contributes to a modern mythology for our broken world. In 2021, they began at Frascati Productions with Sheath and Knife, followed by LENZ (2022), and together with collective LENZ Katie Cruel (2023), Hauntology (2024) and Anatomy of a Suicide (2025) – the acclaimed play by Alice Birch who personally granted permission for the translation and changes in dramaturgy. Erasmus' final production as a Frascati maker is 4.48 Psychosis, based on the text by Sarah Kane.

Light, space and sound play crucial roles in their work. Erasmus is strongly inspired by music styles such as noise, drone, industrial, metal and folk; their work as a designer is heavily influenced by diverse subcultures including post-industrialism and cult, as well as by ruins, digital culture and rural aesthetics. After several years in Amsterdam, Erasmus is now based in Glasgow again.