Theatre

The Century of my Mother

A grand family story about migration, emancipation, love and life.

Company Het Nationale Theater
Production 2021
Photo: Sanne Peper

In 1948, eight-year-old Winnie (played by Esther Scheldwacht) arrives in the Netherlands, while the war of independence is raging in the Dutch East Indies. In her new homeland she radically opts for being 'non-Indian', which means to her: being free, being in control. She marries the Dutch entrepreneur Lex (Hein van der Heijden), falls in love with the Surinamese Gudrun (Romana Vrede) and again and again she fights for her autonomy. When Winnie turns out to be terminally ill at the age of eighty, her son Ramses (Bram Coopmans) reconstructs her life in a provocative exhibition in the Kunstmuseum in The Hague. He shows what traces the colonial past has left in the lives of Winnie and her children. Mother and son meet in a shop in The Hague for a conversation they never dared to have before.

Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper

Cast

Denise Aznam, Emma Buysse, Bram Coopmans, Yela de Koning, Hein van der Heijden, Betty Schuurman, Roben Mitchell, Johannes Wirix-Speetjens, Mark Rietman, Esther Scheldwacht, Joris Smit, Jatou Sumbunu en Romana Vrede

Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper

Credits

Author & directed by: Eric de Vroedt

Dramaturgy: Willemijn Barelds

Scenography: Maze de Boer

Light: Bernie van Velzen

Costumes: Lotte Goos

Music, sound: Florentijn Boddendijk, Remco de Jong

Assistant director: Chyramain van Kempen

Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper
Photo: Sanne Peper