A key insight was that the problem isn't in the content. Theatre can still move and connect people deeply. But the traditional rhythm of theatre production doesn't always align with how people engage with stories today.
The process usually goes like this: a maker has an idea → a script is written → weeks of rehearsal → try-outs → premiere → and only just before opening night does the publicity begin, always following the same rigid pattern.
But what if the conversation starts much earlier?
Together we developed a 'slow production' approach in which audiences are involved from the very beginning. Not just around the performance, but around the theme a maker is exploring. Through podcasts, open rehearsals, dinners, interventions in the city, and other formats that bring the story to life before the curtain rises. This way, a production becomes part of a broader social conversation and reaches a much wider audience.
And then there is the uterus.
For the production Battlefield of Dreams — about fertility, infertility, and the often invisible stories around them — we designed a giant inflatable pink uterus. A deliberately oversized object that appears in public space to spark conversations: on the street, in the city, and sometimes in the places where those conversations are needed most.
And that is exactly what has happened. The pink uterus has taken on a life of its own. She shows up at protests about women's rights and abortion. She marches in the Women's March every year, most recently on 8 March in Amsterdam, where thousands gathered on International Women's Day. She makes it into newspapers (see article below) and onto social media, provoking friction and recognition alike, and starting conversations everywhere she appears that might otherwise never have happened.
She is now far more than a marketing object. She is a work of art — and the Amsterdam Museum has added her to its permanent collection. But not before she spends the next two years parading as much as possible: through streets, across squares, and alongside the stories that deserve to be seen.
That is perhaps the most beautiful thing about this project: we designed something for the theatre, and the theatre went out into the world.
Because maybe the theatre of the future doesn't begin with buying a ticket. Maybe it begins with a conversation.
Want to know what we could mean for the future of your cultural organisation? Get in touch, we'd love to explore it together.
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