BORN FOR NOTHING

Marieke Heerema
Mon 5 Oct 20:30
Mon 5 Oct 2026
20:30

In an abandoned factory hall, workers carry out monotonous rituals: one processes it, another packs it, and a third discards what does not meet the standards. The creatures being created are not regarded as living or valuable, but as products. There is no sense of wonder amongst the factory workers. There is no doubt, no protest – only actions, detachment and automatism.

The performance oscillates between an ecstatic trance and a cold production process. BORN FOR NOTHING lays bare the cold mechanics of endless production, alongside the fragile beauty of nascent life, and poses the question:

What does it mean to no longer see living beings as life, but as something to be consumed?

About Marieke Heerema

Marieke’s performances transport the audience to alternative, absurd worlds, where sweet colours clash with the sometimes-grey reality. In these pastel-coloured, dystopian universes, she sketches characters such as the lonely man in a sex robot brothel or the highly productive cow who dreams of a different life. She gives a voice to the forgotten characters, those who are often overlooked.

Together with mimes and artists, she constructs speculative worlds, in which the everyday is slowed down, distorted and reimagined. Always presented in a science-fiction style accompanied by hard-hitting techno beats, Marieke creates performances that raise questions about humanity.

Credits

regie Marieke Heerema | dramaturgie Pol van Eggermont | mime/dans Daniëlle Huyghe, Aleksej Ovsiannikov, Luuk Weers | decor & licht Floris Barnhoorn | muziek Simeon van Tongeren | regie-assistent Olga Tsyganova

Put me on the waiting list

Wish list

Added:

To wishlist

Subscribe to the newsletter