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- Category: #UNCUT
In 2016, composer Renske Vrolijk approaches Annechien Koerselman with the request to develop modern music theater based on a personal special story. And so it happens. Annechien comes up with a concept, in which the singing voice forms the common thread, she writes the libretto together with Wendela de Vos, and as a music dramaturge she closely supervises Renske Vrolijk in the realization of the composition of #Uncut.
Vivian used to be trapped in a boy's body. This is her story. Uncut. And yes, that is the question she is most often asked. The confrontational ánd poetic performance #uncut tells the story of Vivian, a trans woman or just… woman. Who can say. She looks back on a transition that was not only courageous, but also raises new questions. After a lengthy process of psychological examination and medical interventions, she now is who she wanted to be. Isn't she? But what to do with her past? What to do with the old photos? Who was she then, and who is she now? "You're happy now, aren't you?, she hears that all too often. But is she? In a collage of flashbacks, set against the here and now, Vivian rumbles through the emotional rollercoaster of the before and after of her decision, which was not a decision. Could not be a decision at all. Because it was as it was, as it is, as it should be.
The experiences of the composer herself form the starting point for this semi-autobiographical music theater performance. A story that starts with the human voice. Irresistible and unruly as Renske Vrolijks musical language is, it will be performed by two of the hippest ensembles of the Low Countries: the roaring ORBI (The Oscillating Revenge of the Background Instruments) and saxophone quartet Bl!ndman. The Netherlands Chamber Choir sings and plays the family, the judging and disapproving masses, the thrill seekers, the team of doctors in a performance that now already is high-profile.
Photo © SMITH, sans titre, TRAUM, 2015
Cast & Crew
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- Category: #UNCUT
Review
De Volkskrant, Maartje Stokkers, May 25, 2022
[...] a look into her inner worlds: the child who feels that something is not right, the adolescent who says 'better dead' and the adult who has to start over after transition.
a boy [sings] like an angel a wordless melody
You hear her environment asking insensitive questions ("Are you a man or a woman?") and also how she falls in love with a woman and says: "I don't want to have, but to be."
The boy and the teenager ask her to keep them a part of her life. That is difficult for her, but they find each other in a harmony song with the angelic melody of the child as a foothold.