Slaughterhouse five

Performance
Billy Pilgrim has become disconnected from time. The American soldier can walk through a door in 1945 and come out sometime in 1965. For example, at the end of the Second World War he relives the horrific bombing of Dresden and is simultaneously abducted by aliens and exhibited on their planet Tralfamadore. In that place Billy learns that things cannot happen otherwise than they happen. And that all things happen at the same time. The reality around him slowly falls apart and traumatic events from Billy’s life are given a new place and meaning. Based on the anti-war book ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ by Kurt Vonnegut.

Design
The large stage space is almost empty and Billy Pilgrim floats through it. Sometimes literally. Scenes take place in the vast void, on a luminous wooden deck or in front of a wall of corrugated iron. Billy constantly changes place and time, triggered by sounds, words or colors. Thick clouds of smoke are blown into the room, fat beams of light descend to fill the room, red LED lines descend across the stage. On the backstage, a huge inflatable baby unfolds, only to shrivel up again. The rapid transformation of (abstract) images ensures that time and space become fluid.

Jury selection for the National Dutch Theatre Festival 2022