This is water, De Nwe time and DE HOE

How do you lead a meaningful life? That was the starting point of the speech This is Water van David Foster Wallace. De Amerikaanse writer read the text in 2005 at the graduation ceremony of a prestigious college for an audience of students on the threshold of adult life. He did so sweating. You would for less, because how on earth do you give young people advice if you don't know it all yourself? Twenty-two years later, the members of De Nwe Tijd and DE HOE are on average exactly the same age as Wallace was when he gave his speech. In the second part of the trilogy they are making around his oeuvre and persona, they are now reflecting together on that same question: how do you lead a meaningful life? What does that mean, a meaningful life, anno 2027? And how can you pass on to a younger generation what you only dare to describe for yourself with much hesitation as ‘wisdom’? This is water is a generous performance with and about good advice − and about the (im)possibility of following it. Op Theater Aan Zee 2024, De Nwe Tijd and DE HOE presented a work-in-progress version of This is water. Pzazz was there and wrote about it: “This is water was more than a conversation about good advice: it became a reflection on what playing and acting is and brings about, in the players themselves and in the audience.” “This is water grew into a theater experience hors catégorie. It provides a lot of lived-in life wisdom.” by and with Ans Van den Eede, Elvis de Launay, Freek Vielen, Suzanne Grotenhuis, Willem de Wolf and Wannes Gyselinck - production De Nwe Tijd and DE HOE - thanks to De Grote Post - with the support of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap - © photo Alexander Daems