Cliënt E. Busken

‘When I read this book I immediately saw a production in it. The central character, E. Busken, can no longer do anything; everything has been taken from him, and all he has left are his thoughts, which he shares with us. He is in the last phase of his life, where reality, dream and memory can no longer be told apart. It is in this edifice of language that we find ourselves caught up. Because Jeroen Brouwers has, to put it in E. Busken's words, “an almost religious sense of language with a variety of words like a flower garden”, I found myself longing for music as I adapted the book. To escape the language for a moment. But also to come closer to the central character through the music of his youth. In this production I hope to combine my two great loves in my craft. Language and music. For the head and the heart.’

‘It is a fate that awaits many of us: we grow old, we decline, we become isolated and are left to the care of strangers, and we wait for the end… Thank goodness we have Jeroen Brouwers! He creates an exuberant, razor-sharp monument of language that keeps even death at a distance, comforts us and makes us laugh, and shows that we are truly free in our thoughts. I am especially happy that we are able to give shape to this universe of the mind that is Client E. Busken.’