To the cookie settings To the main content To the footer

ravensbrück

Stefanie Claes | Lucinda Ra
Theater na de Dam
Mon 4 May Multiple times
Mon 4 May 2026

Stefanie Claes’s grandmother spent more than a year in Ravensbrück, a women’s concentration camp in Germany, during the Second World War. This left her with a trauma that affected her for the rest of her life. It also affected her daughter, Stefanie’s mother. How is it that trauma is passed down through the generations?

ravensbrück is a wordless and visual performance for adults and (their) children from the age of 10, for a limited audience. More than about the literal meaning of a war trauma, ravensbrück is about how certain events have a lifelong effect in and on your life. Three generations of women are central, because everyone is someone's child.

Aline Vervoort, the grandmother of Stefanie Claes, is arrested together with her parents in her house in Winksele during the Second World War. She spent a year in the German women's concentration camp Ravensbrück. She survives those dark months full of cold, hunger and abuse, but her life is forever marked by the horrific events of war. Nothing is ever the same.

As a child, Stefanie sometimes dreams that soldiers invade her street and she has to flee. But it is only at the age of 16 that she really realizes the drama that has taken place in her family and that she has started to have conversations about it with her grandmother and mother. Gradually it becomes clear that the feelings of war are a part of the family’s life. War is everywhere.

Good to know

  • The performance is completely wordless, so you don't need to understand any Dutch to see it.
  • Suitable for children from the age of 10.
Part of

Recensies

DE MORGEN
"Ook in het woordloze ravensbrück drukt ze zich uit door te tekenen, te schilderen, en - net zo belangrijk - te knippen, te snijden, weg te gommen, uit te wissen, op te lichten. Ze handelt zorgzaam en discreet, met een precisie die zowel grote betrokkenheid als meesterschap verraadt."

DE STANDAARD
"Ravensbrück is een persoonlijke, toegewijde en fijnzinnige voorstelling [...] Weer valt op hoe delicaat Claes’ werk is: elk zuchtje of geschuifel verstoort de concentratie van het kleine gebaar."

PZAZZ
"Hoe ze het fysieke spel van teken- en knutselwerk omzet in eenvoudige, vaak aangrijpende beelden, maakt indruk."

Geselecteerd voor het TheaterFestival 2024

Skip
Zoom in Zoom in Zoom in

About Stefanie Claes

With Mia Fair, theater maker Stefanie Claes developed her special theater language: small, traditional, personal and visual. This way of telling continues to theatricalize the story of Aline Vervoort, and the echo through the generations. As a source of inspiration for ravensbrück, Stefanie bases herself - in addition to documentaries, historical reference books and interviews with trauma experts - on conversations with her (grand)mother and fragments of personal letters.

Voorstellingen over vrijheid

Op de avond van de Nationale Dodenherdenking op 4 mei om 21.00 uur zetten theatermakers en artiesten in heel Nederland zich in om deze dag van extra betekenis te voorzien. Elk jaar spelen gelijktijdig…

No Dutch Required

Welcome to all our internationals and Anglophiles! Our No Dutch Required selection lists performances that are either English spoken, have English surtitles or that are without spoken text altogether.

Credits

concept, ontwerp & spel Stefanie Claes I dramaturgie & feedback Sofie Van der Linden, Barbara Claes, Simon Allemeersch I lichtadvies Marlies Jacques I productie Lucinda Ra I coproductie De Studio, VIERNULVIER I spreiding GOOD COMPANY I in samenwerking met De Grote Post, Museum Dr. Guislain, c o r s o I met de steun van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, de stad Gent, deAuteurs I met dank aan Algemeen Rijksarchief Dienst Archief Oorlogsslachtoffers

Put me on the waiting list

Wish list

Added:

To wishlist

Subscribe to the newsletter