Set design and construction for the theater production “Lazarus”.In 2009 I came into contact with Laurens Umans, director/actor and the embodiment of the Wresinski Culture Foundation: A skilled and passionate person who knows how to inspire a whole caravan of people at and below the poverty line to greater heights. Together with a regular team of professionals such as Sara Steenman and André Sipkes and aspiring actors, they create theater productions in the spirit of Joseph Wresinski.
Poverty and prisoners in bureaucratic labyrinths are central to the productions. This form of theater gives faceless people a face and a voice. Makes them shine and grow. Some of the actors have been with the theater for so long that they are also getting better at acting and becoming more professional. The rehearsal space is in Zwolle but the actors, light/sound technicians and singers come from all over the country. At the time, Laurens asked me to design a set for the production Lazarus. This was my first set design ever.
The performance Lazarus? played in season 2012/2013. Lazarus? is a performance about various facets of being homeless.
The performance shows a bewildering struggle with our bureaucracy framed by a mixture of moving, poetic, revealing and comforting scenes. Played by former homeless people among others, people who sometimes appear in our field of vision and disappear from it again, nowhere from, nowhere to go. They want to tell of the daily and inner life hidden behind the fleeting image they leave with us.
