2013
The English word ‘woe’ means trouble, misery. In this performance, three teenagers are located in the auditorium, close to the spectators. Searching for words, in an attempt to tell a story, they guide the members of the audience through memories of their own youth. Images of normal childhood experiences are gradually replaced by images that evoke feelings of powerlessness and loneliness. While the performers alternate the evocation of emotions and the sharing of memories with information about what happens in the body and the brain during various kinds of abuse, the attention slowly shifts to fierce attempts to put the experience of child abuse into words. How closely can you approach the experience of another person? Woe is a particularly intimate performance about the power and limitations of empathy and the courage to look far inwards.
WOE is produced by Stichting Kata, and co-produced by STUK in Leuven, Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and Teatro Maria Matos in Lisbon.
CREDITS
Concept and direction: Edit Kaldor
Performance: Merel Ouwehand, David de Lange and Kobbe Koopman
Text: Edit Kaldor, Karmenlara Ely and the performers
Assistant dramaturgy: Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk
Light: Jan Fedinger
Text advice: Rob de Graaf
Direction assistant: Annefleur Schep
Management: Anneke Tonen
Thanks to: Nicola Unger, Frank Theys and Emke Idema
WOE is produced by Stichting Kata / Edit Kaldor, and is co-produced by Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, Teatro Maria Matos in Lisbon and STUK in Leuven. The performance is supported by the Performing Arts Fund NL, the Amsterdam Arts Fund and the SNS Reaal Fund.