Archive

Amy’s found another body in her short career as a cleaner for a local hotel, only this time she proceeds to have a heart-to-heart with the dear departed old chap. Jim, proprietor of the Green Door Self-Storage Company, notices a funny smell coming from one of their storage units, but can he be bothered to investigate? And Kate’s losing it after spending an entire day with the police. She’s got a business to run and it’s much too hot and her boyfriend’s bloody dog just won’t…shut…up!

Two iconic queens in a bloody power struggle have to deal with their faiths, the interests of their people, and of the men that surround them… Mary’s asylum puts Elizabeth in a state of defence. Family loyalty and duty to the kingdom, fear of death and child envy define the outcome of this intimate confrontation.Who has the power and who runs the State?

Ko van den Bosch’s ‘Hinterlands – Heart of Lightness’ is about an expat couple in Africa. While he leaves every day for work in his Enhanced Safety Mercedes-Benz, his wife stays in the air-conditioned villa as a victim to absolute boredom, afraid of the jungle and the savages. They kill time drinking, debating the situation in Africa, and the question whether to help the wounded native on the driveway, or to run over him. Then, she decides to invite the man in…

Jack and Algernon, two young pillars of society, are both avoiding the duties and responsibilities of Victorian social life. By inventing friends and brothers they try to escape from boredom and tedious obligations. Will they succeed in their pursuit of love and freedom? Or will they find defeat in marriage and respectability?

The Pillowman starts with an interrogation in a totalitarian regime. The talented, yet unpublished, writer Katurian is grilled on his rather morbid stories by the traditional good cop / bad cop routine. A number of his stories are suspiciously like some gruesome child murders that took place. What follows is a game of cat and mouse in which the fragility of life and the eternity of the writer are played out against each other. The art of telling stories becomes the lifeblood of the drama.

Govert, the father of Dilliaane, is desperate to wed her to the nobleman Groothart, a pompous ass who can go on and on about his many heroic acts and has a curious preference for LARGE women. The lovable squire Eelhart is secretly very much in love with Dilliaane, but stands no chance to turn Govert’s mind without the help of his servant Krispyn, who disguises himself as a woman to seduce Groothart and stave off the wedding. He’s assisted by Jasje (the clownesque servant of Groothart), Bernardus (Govert’s nephew), and Katryn (Govert’s maid).

One for the Road (1984) by Harold Pinter is one of his more famous short plays. Nicolas has invited a complete family – father, mother and eight-year-old son – into his sinister state institution for a good questioning:

In Waiting for Godot the fundamental absurdity of the human existence is described in a poignant and painful way. The two main characters, kind of vagrants, are trapped in a circle of ever returning trivialities. The waiting for Godot – academics can’t seem to agree if he symbolizes God or not – forms the most important activity in the play. Waiting but not being able to go anywhere, to want something but being perpetually stuck, anguish and a continued focus on strengthening the feeling of fear and emptiness. Their pasts are an unclear mess of what is real and what is fantasy (and one of the duo has a chronic memory problem) and they are not in any state to imagine a representation of the future.

Why sell your soul to evil? What is evil these days? Choosing evil makes you guilty, but if you have no other choice than evil, are you still guilty? And is pure remorse enough to receive forgiveness? Mariken van Niemeghen is a text that does not get performed often anymore, and certainly not in Middle Dutch. The story of a young girl, that goes shopping for her uncle in Nijmegen, ends up on the street due to awful treatment at the hands of her aunt and subsequently sells her soul to the devil, doesn’t seem to inspire many contemporary theater makers. Homerostheater however does see inspiring themes that even now, maybe especially now, will appeal to a diverse audience.

The only way to live is to trust in other people. A man and a woman have a child. Simple? Not if you consider that Neoptolemos and Andromache were once sworn enemies. That Neoptolemos is Greek, and Andromache a Trojan. That Andromache, once a princess, wife, and mother, is now his slave. That Neoptolemos had a hand in the death of her first child. That Neoptolemons is going to take another bride – Hermione – and he’s going to travel, leaving Andromache behind with the new bride. Or that Hermione’s father is Menelaos. Greek, father, and war hero?

Roote, the director of the rest house, is confronted by the death of a patient and another patient is in labor. In his search to find the guilty parties the boss finds his position of authority slipping away like sand through his fingers. Panic ensues, even bureaucrats are wildlings when push comes to shove.

A show performed half in Dutch and half in old Greek. Unfortunately there is no photographic material available.

Brecht wrote his anti-war piece Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder in 1939 in Denmark, after fleeing there from the nazi-regime. He criticized the attitude of the Scandinavian countries, who stood to profit a great deal from the iron trade with Germany, and in doing so were digging their own grave. The clever Mutter Courage, trading as she follows armies and profiting off war, loses her children one by one to that same war.

Les Misanthrope by Moliére was performed in the original French language. Unfortunately there is no photographic material available from this show.