Viva la Naturisteracion!

performance
Montage performance in which a group of radical idealists go through the history of nudism. They promote a better and cleaner society, with naturism as the trump card. “Back to nature” as the cure for the materialism that has spoiled us. The performers draw on a wealth of personal memories and existing material, such as Utopia by Thomas More, De Belofte van het Lichaam (The Promise of the Body) by Evert Peeters, and every season of Dutch reality TV show Expeditie Robinson. What rules are needed to live in freedom? Is a new beginning in today’s society still possible, or do we just have to apocalyptically explode the entire system to see what occurs in the new emptiness?

design
A tightly aligned stage – the magical surface – is delineated with carefully sorted items: telephones, mannequins, furniture, hamburger and deodorant packaging, PVC tubes, toys, jerrycans, etc. In between are the naked actors. The visual scenes are interrupted by texts about man’s desire to get back to the source, away from harmful materialism. While performing, the players gradually spread the objects over the floor. The world ultimately collapses from its own overconsumption. In a hellish machine, the towers of furniture tumble into each other and dump the rubbish downwards. When the smoke has cleared, there remains an apocalyptic landscape of things.

Jury selection for the National Dutch Theatre Festival 2012