A woman (Mariana Aparicio) was going to stay for a night with her pregnant sister (Esther Scheldwacht) and brother-in-law (Chiem Vreeken), but she has already been there for a few weeks. With her sparkling personality – Aparicio places her impishly mocking sentences wonderfully bluntly – she manages to disguise it for a while, before it becomes clear how seriously this woman has become stuck in life after a traumatic incident in her youth. She clings to her relatives as if she would go under without them.
In Koen Steger’s set: an openwork metro car, bathed in unnatural cold blue, red or sultry orange light, everything feels unreal. Cold, impersonal. Windows cannot be opened. It is awkward to rest on these hard plastic chairs.
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It will come as no surprise that a play about a displaced, stranded character does not contain too much dramatic momentum. Nightshade is a bit sticky here and there. At times when playwright Annet Bremen changes this with plot-technical tricks, for example by having the woman break emotionally, or by having a neighbor, like an angel, act as rescue, it seems somewhat unlikely.
Scene photo of Nightshade.
Photo Andreas Terlaak
Because, no matter how tragic: this woman has become petrified in her mourning, such a person does not cry. And no, she won’t actually leave that cold subway car that has become her world. The fact that we see all this happening before our eyes in this production by Belle van Heerikhuizen can perhaps be interpreted as an encouragement: be one of those neighbors who shows up unannounced at the door and asks, really asks, if ‘everything is okay’; contrary to the morals of an individualistic society driven by the pursuit of profit, strength and self-reliance. Be the one who opens the windows for those who are in danger of being suffocated by their isolation.
It is not up to the vulnerable person to toughen up, is the thought with which this gloomy but fascinating, poetic performance sends you home after just under two hours. On the contrary: vulnerability is what makes life worth living. We would rather make an effort together to soften our environment a bit.
