What do you bring to the world when the world is running out? Oersoep – physical music theater based on the novel of the same name by Bregje Hofstede, with live music by K.O.Brass.
Oersoep is physical music theatre about motherhood, the body and ecological crisis. It explores what it means to carry, bear and care for another human being. About the hope that new life brings, and the grief for what is lost in a world that is slowly running out.
The story begins inside the mind of a woman in labour. We follow the waves of her contractions and her thoughts in the brief moments between them. For a while, nothing else seems to matter – and yet the whole world feels present. It is an experience that changes her life and her view of the world for good.
But what do you do when you’ve brought new life into a dying world? That question sets her in motion after the birth. Away from the safety of her home, out into the world, in search of connection. Through love, sex, loss, and numbness.
Inspired by the St Matthew Passion, Oersoep becomes a musical experience in which birth and death converge. With live music by K.O. Brass, what emerges is a contemporary requiem and a celebration.
A passion for now. To grieve together, to slow down, and to welcome life anew.
About Rebekka Nilsson
Rebekka Nilsson graduated from the directing programme at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK) in 2020 and has since made work with companies in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway. Alongside her work as a director, she is one of Norway’s most celebrated bluegrass singers. Her band, Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra, was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy Awards with their debut album, which entered the Billboard Bluegrass Album Charts at number four. With Oersoep, Rebekka Nilsson brings together her love of live music and theatre direction for the first time.
About Bregje Hofstede
Bregje Hofstede is a writer and activist. Her previous novel Drift was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize. She is co-founder of feminist platform De Bovengrondse and Stichting Nationaal Heksenmonument. For De Correspondent, she writes about new prophets.
