Yellowcake, Little Boy

In Yellowcake, Little Boy, Het nieuwstedelijk investigates how the development of the first atomic bomb is connected to Belgian colonial history. The performance weaves events from different times and places together and shows how difficult it is to unambiguously reconstruct a complex past. The most important thing is the discovery that part of the uranium for the bomb Little Boy came from the Congolese mine Shinkolobwe. This bomb destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. From that starting point, a broad historical network of scientists, political decisions, colonial exploitation, and war logic unfolds. On stage, four actors bring this polyphonic history to life, supported by music and a strong soundscape. They constantly switch between characters and time periods: from physicists who were at the basis of nuclear fission to Congolese miners and witnesses of the explosion in Hiroshima. Yellowcake, Little Boy is an incisive performance about responsibility, power, and the price of scientific progress. It makes it palpable how historical events are intertwined and how every attempt to tell the past is also a choice and an interpretation. Over Het nieuwstedelijk. Het nieuwstedelijk creates theater that combines text, music, and image. The company often starts from social and historical themes and looks for forms that make complex stories accessible and layered at the same time.