Locked in her room, Alex Bennett provides a glimpse into her life from the stage. She fearfully avoids contact with the outside world. By means of voice-overs in the room, we hear the young woman reflect on her behaviour and realise during the course of the performance that she can't maintain her fantasy life. For her work, finals student Risé Benschop of the ArtEZ School of Acting drew inspiration from the Hikikomori, Japanese adolescents who shut themselves away in their rooms, sometimes for years. Risé: “An extreme form of losing yourself in fantasy, of course. As a lover of fantasy, they are a warning to me, I don't want to end up like that."
“Film and games are not the only forms of fantasy.”
In her performance, Risé makes “probably a hundred” funny references that you’ll get if you like fantasy and games, while not being essential to the story. “I love fantasy, but when I used to go to the theatre, I tried to adopt a different attitude and be interested in what I saw there. I feel the need to tell this story and I am really making this performance for the younger version of myself. I want to attract a wider audience to the theatre and show that film and games are not the only forms of fantasy."
Alex Bennett’s story also shows us that you don't have to avoid the outside world to be yourself. It’s a message that chimes with Risé: for her, making work based on herself did not come naturally. But her supervisor Silke van Kamp encouraged her to do so. Silke: “We recognise many of our own sensitivities in others. Because I've been in this job for a while, I was able to make clear to Risé that she is not alone in how she feels." Risé: “I thought fantasy didn't belong in the theatre. Thanks to Silke, I have dared to draw on my own experiences much more for my work."
One of a kind
All the elements that Risé likes to use are reflected in her graduation performance: the English language, fantasy and elementary acting. Silke: “The performance crowns her work over the past few years." Risé: “I like playing physical scenes – not everything needs to be told through language. Mime, music or silence to give you space to think: they often say more than words. Silke was always ready to share ideas with me and I worked with Marlies from the Theatre in Education course. Putting on a solo performance was a conscious choice, but I never felt alone." According to Silke, over the past few years Risé has developed into an idiosyncratic and creative maker who uses magic and fantasy in her makership in an original way. “She really is one of a kind, that’s what you want to see in theatre.”
