The making of the MORPH graduation performance

What was the genesis of the School of Acting graduation performance MORPH – or a brook whistled at me? We spoke to Hanneke van der Paardt and Joy Delima.

Joy: "We first talked a lot about a few things like male/female relationships and Western fascination with ideas from the East. We also wanted to work with characters, really act, but also include our own perspective on the world. At one point, someone brought in the book Metamorphoses by Ovid. We decided we could do a lot with it."

Hanneke: "We didn't want to stand on stage as ourselves, make performances about our own lives, but we did want to work based on our personal experiences and fascinations. Last year we made a performance with Marcus Azzini and in it we very much drew on our own experiences. This time, we wanted to relate to a source outside of ourselves. In The Metamorphoses, we found themes such as origin stories, the opportunities and difficulties of change and nostalgia, but also rape, for example. People who know The Metamorphoses often say they are ‘great stories’, but they also describe the most horrible things."

Joy: “As actors, we each studied two chapters in greater depth and gave presentations to one another. We then all made lots of acts in which we tried to capture something that fascinated us about the book. While acting, we investigate what The Metamorphoses can mean to us."

Hanneke: “It has turned into a very full performance. We delve right into those stories, but it is also an investigation into what change is, into nostalgia, representation, racism, feminism. And also into how we have changed ourselves, and how we need to deal with change."

Joy Delima has been nominated for the Colombina for her role as Naomi Polat in Onze straat – Het Nationale Theater, Adelheid+Zina.