On Saturday, October 11, the new preschool show will go on Skeleton (5+) premiered at the Maaspodium in Rotterdam. In the run-up to Día de los Muertos in November, the holiday celebrating farewell and remembrance with colour, flowers and music, theatre group Grote Mensen and Maas theatre and dance build a lively ritual on stage. After its premiere, the show will tour Dutch theatres until early January.
Skeleton is a poetic, funny and comforting performance about saying goodbye. Maas theatre and dance and Theatre Group Big People take you on a journey through memories, mourning rituals and the mystery of death with humour, music, acting and colour. Because saying goodbye can also be beautiful. And sometimes even festive.
Two players explore what it means to be dead. One of them has died, but has not yet realised it himself. This leads to confusion and unexpectedly funny moments. Together, they look for ways to say goodbye: what remains of someone, and how do you give it meaning? Slowly, a ritual full of lights, stories and confusion emerges. And room for joy.
With slapstick, magic, dance and visual play, a memorial full of flowers, candles, skeletons and stories grows. Skeleton, together with the audience, builds its own farewell ceremony. Not heavy or solemn, but playful, moving and full of life. A performance for everyone who has ever been touched by loss and wants to discover how to use festoons, dance and memories to make a party of it.
Inspired by traditions such as Día de los Muertos, in which farewell and remembrance are celebrated with colour, flowers and music, Theatre Group Big People and Maas theatre and dance build a lively ritual on stage. The sadness may be there, but so is the celebration. A vibrant ode to life!
A performance where loss and memories come alive. For everyone: big, small, fleshy or bony, from 5 years old.
COMPLEX TOPICS AT THE DUPLICATE LEVEL
For years, Maas theatre and dance has been known for its toddler and pre-school work: theatre for the very young where big themes are brought in a playful way. Artistic director René Geerlings has already created many successful toddler productions in which complex subjects such as anarchism, digitalisation and globalisation were translated to an understandable "duplo" level for toddlers and pre-schoolers and has won many prizes (Silver Crickets for AaiPet and BullyBully). Several of these performances also tour internationally in various casts, while new work is being developed in Rotterdam by new creators such as Sara Giampaolo, Anne-Fe de Boer, Esther Schouten and Grote Mensen.
THEATRE GROUP BIG PEOPLE ABOUT SKELETON
"We are making Skeleton because we feel it is time to talk about death in a different way. Not just as something sad, but as something that comes with life. In many cultures, like Mexico and Suriname, where some of our roots are, people make colourful celebrations and rituals to remember deceased loved ones. That inspires us enormously. We want to show children and adults that you can also say goodbye with lights, flowers, dance and stories. That it is comforting to think together about those you miss and to celebrate that someone has been there.
With Skeleton we build a place of memory on stage full of music, humour and magic. We show that everyone has a story inside them, a skeleton full of memories. And that it is good to keep telling those stories. Because if we learn how to grieve together, we can also heal together."
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