People with problems

Het Nederlandse maker collective Wunderbaum presents for the first time in the Netherlands and Belgium a translated cycle by the German-Swiss author Sibylle Berg, who brings unforgettable characters to life. Met Maartje Remmers, Bavo Buys, Laura De Geest, and Wine Dierickx on stage, Mensen met problemen follows in four parts the lives of four women in different phases of their lives. Their expectations of life melt away, their bodies protest, their world crumbles. They sell homemade drugs on the internet, they are non-stop reachable on all digital channels, and become single mothers with extinguished careers. Outside on the street, a quasi-lost battle for democracy rages, and slogans against foreigners, gay marriage, and meat substitutes sound. With suspicion, the women look at young generations, who seem more relaxed in life. They take up the fight with the world and invent alternatives to keep life on this earth in its current form. The pieces by Berg, presented here in a theater marathon, are rousing, angry, and very powerful. Full of intelligence, humor, anger, and respect. They possess an existential urgency factor and are nothing less than a definitive reckoning with just about everything. But behind the sarcasm of the celebrated author, something like a heartwarming melancholy always shines through. Her work is a frontal attack. But despite all its misanthropy, it is at the same time ironic and exuberant. Artistic team For Mensen met problemen (a tragicomic attempt to live life in four acts), the Belgian city theater NTGent and the Dutch maker collective Wunderbaum join forces. Fixed values of the collective Maartje Remmers and Wine Dierickx are on stage together with actors Bavo Buys and Laura De Geest. Voor Koen Tachelet, this new creation is a happy return to NTGent where he was head dramaturg between 2005 and 2010.