LET'S TALK ABOUT DEMOCRACY

Club Gewalt celebrates its ten year anniversary. Ten years full of love, art, rock ‘n’ roll and attending protests. Time to celebrate! A subdued birthday get-together morphs into a fiery arena where alternative forms of conflict are faced and fought out. A performance that acts as a killjoy by disturbing the peace - because peace is for political pussies and harmony is reserved for tone deaf fascists. Party of the decade: FOMO guaranteed.

What does it mean when you are stripped naked by the government? What does it mean if you always have to be wary of your last name, your origin, your dual nationality? Maxine Palit de Jongh wrote the poignant monologue Vecht based on the Dutch childcare benefits scandal. We witness the demise of Zafirah, a young spirited woman who works for the legal department of a government agency, who is raising two children, and who is crushed by the racist wheels of the government. Envelope after envelope arrives on her doormat in which Zafirah is labeled a fraudster.

Do we still believe in truth, or do we only believe in our own truth? Rob Wijnberg shows how we all arrive at our own facts. The result: a society without solidarity in which we trust politics and the media less and less. The only thing that can change that is a bigger story about progress in the 21st century. A story about the next step forward, which shows that together we are capable of unthinkable changes. Voor ieder wat waars is a powerful remedy against the stubborn cynicism and the perceived powerlessness of our time.

Night falls. We're in a shop. Outside on the street, turmoil is mounting. Are those young people hanging around out there? Is it a party, or will this be a flare-up of antisocial riots? And why are they there? 

In 1944, the Russian grandmother of actor Willem Voogd boarded a German train from Odessa in the former Soviet Union to the West, heading to see her love. After six months and through bombed railway lines, labor camps and illegal border crossings, she finally reaches her love in the Netherlands. In 2021, her grandson will make the same journey. Willem's journey previously resulted in the successful podcast Baba and is now being brought to the stage. Willem delves into his grandmother's history and discovers a completely different side of Baba than he initially knew.

Men like Joris Luyendijk dominate the world. They are the standard to which everyone must conform. They never need to put themselves in the shoes of others in order to move up. But why do we actually give power to these people with so little life experience? In this performance Zoveel Meer Dan Zeven Vinkjes, Joris takes a sharp and self-deprecating look at his and his classmates' world. How is your personality shaped and distorted when your privileges make you miss out on all kinds of life experiences?

How do you dance if you can't dance? Dancing is officially banned in Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution, all dance companies have had to close their doors. Many dancers and choreographers have fled abroad. Those who still live there must be resourceful. How do they keep this art form alive? Theater maker Nastaran Razawi Khorasani presents the dance performance This is not a dance about censorship. What can be seen and what can't? As music and lighting push each other further and further, she tries to restrain her dancing body.

Ruben Terlou en Jelle Brandt Corstius, makers van o.a. de indrukwekkende VPRO-reisserie Langs de Nieuwe Zijderoute, komen naar het Parktheater! De geboren verhalenvertellers nemen deze keer de theaterbezoeker mee op hun reizen. 

“Let's imagine a world where there is only one ideal to follow, one value, one truth. What if this truth is love?" In Dictatorship of love, it is this question that choreographer Sandra Kramerová focuses on. How do ideals become oppressive? How can dedication, commitment and love become a dictatorship? Can movement speak louder than words, and what happens when we move together as one? Fascinated by this tension of surrender to the greater whole and the preservation of individual freedom, we follow a group of dancers in their search for the power of the female body in a crowd.

In this performance, Club Guy & Roni explores how empathy can be a driving force in how we live together. In the Netherlands, we’ve learned always to be the best versions of ourselves as individuals, independently of others’ needs. If you need help, there must be something wrong with you. This is a society in which self-reliance is the norm, and dependence on others a sign of weakness.