Nachtwacht

Nachtwacht is a typical NITE performance: energetic, musically driven and extremely relevant. After the success of Salam, Jack Wouterse is back with NITE for this new, pitch black, incredibly funny and deeply saddening performance. Through inevitable aging and death, Nachtwacht deals with themes such as family, authority and emancipation. A family tragedy in which everyone tries to break free from their assigned roles, to get the chance to define a role for themselves that they truly believe in. It’s dark but also meditative. Oppressive but ultimately liberating. A weakening heartbeat slowly turns into an upward beat. A ritual journey to the end of the night, towards the first light of the new day.

'We don't see the world as it is, but in the way we are.'

'How can we preserve the stories of our ancestors and still make room for a new world. A better world?’

The story
The twilight years of an elderly man (Jack Wouterse) are prolonged in a care facility. As caregivers attend to his needs, they keep a logbook documenting every action performed on Mr. (as he's referred to in the logbook) in short, objective notes.

As these notes pulse through the performance like a heartbeat, occasionally, Mr.'s family pays him a visit. A modern family, fragmented like most families today, consisting of isolated individuals yearning for connection but keeping each other at arm's length.
Particularly, Mr.'s daughter struggles with his impending death. For the frail, powerless old man was once an authoritative, frustrated father. And though little remains of the man who once dictated her life, she realizes, on the brink of his death, how deeply he still affects her.
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The passing of the old man is like the end of an era. A form of liberation from patriarchy. Like the death of a god. A death she had long awaited, anticipating it to free her forever. But as she looks at her family, at her own son and daughter, she realizes the profound influence of that dying man. She truly believed she had broken free, yet her world remains moulded by his spirit. She can't help but see the world through his eyes. At the eleventh hour, she understands she must learn to see in a new way, to live as she truly desires. The woman knows she still has a battle to wage with a man who is no longer capable of fighting. And so, they spend one last night together. A vigil. In which the dying man and the woman, searching for her identity, gradually detach from the confines of space and time.

And as this unfolds, the performance increasingly defies the traditional conventions of theater. What begins as a theatrical performance evolves into a farewell ritual and an exorcism combined. Ultimately culminating in a liberating rave.

directing Guy Weizman
choreography Roni Haver
text Rik van den Bos
set design Ascon de Nijs
composer Luke Dean
costume Maison The Faux
lighting design Maarten van Rossem
dramaturgy Friederike Schubert
music dramaturgy David Dramm
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cast Jack Wouterse, Sarah Janneh, Bien De Moor, Sanne den Hartogh, Olaf Ait Tami, Nimuë Walraven, Bram van der Heijden, Angela Herenda, Igor Podsiadly, Jésula Toussaint Visser, Camilo Chapela, Sofiko Nachkebiya, Adam Peterson, Singers from NKK NXT, musicians of Asko|Schönberg and the percussionists of Hiiit.