Club Lam

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Men become legends. Women become myths.

An eco-feminist musical theater performance about power, myths and the danger of leadership

It is 2050. The Netherlands is largely flooded. Only Venlo remained dry and was declared the new capital. The Dutch are moving south, including their matcha bars, start-ups and podcasts. But the Meuse is also swelling here. The water is crawling. The threat is real.

When politicians continue to meet and the people party as if the world is not burning, one woman intervenes: Trut. She saves the city with nothing but her courage and a handful of bras. Her act is celebrated as heroic. She is crowned president. To the savior of the new homeland.

But how do you celebrate a victory if you feel that this is only the beginning of much more misery?

In the side room of a victory party, Trut sits with her two advisors: Athena, the goddess of strategy, and Aphrodite, the goddess of the heart and desire. Together they look back, make plans, clash over truth and tactics. While the music thunders downstairs, Trut struggles with the question: what does it mean to have power in a world that refuses to change?

Men become legends, women become myths.

In the tower room of Venlo we see two women whose fate we know all too well: Cassandra and Ophelia, advisors to our new leader Gertruid Bolwater, better known as Trut. It's 2050. The Netherlands was flooded and Venlo managed to defend itself against the water thanks to Trut. But the victory attracts climate refugees: Dutch people who try to colonize the pickled meat and pies with their coffee shops and taco joints. As the counselors try to steer Trut's fate, it becomes clear what all women in history have in common: they are only remembered when their end is tragic. Murdered, deprived of their voice and drowned in oblivion. Because women who speak the truth are pushed back with one word: hysterical.

It slowly becomes clear: her real enemy is not the water, but the collective desire to look away. The urge to soften everything, to forget, to celebrate — while the world is about to break.

This is how Ophelia guarded the peace.
And Cassandra carried the truth.
And so Gertruid also fought for the people.

TRUT is a musical, theatrical ode to the unwanted fortune tellers of our time. A ritual for women who refuse to laugh away their intuition. A cry from within, in the language of struggle, poetry and pop music.

“The bravest thing you will ever do is live in the truth
and let your heart speak, even if no one believes it.”

45 minutes before the start, an introduction will be given by Annette Embrechts, dance and theater journalist for de Volkskrant. You can reserve a spot for this free of charge during the ordering process.