Time for Joy

A bench. A mother is waiting for her two children. Her son tells her that he wants to disappear for a while. And while she tries to come to terms with what his decision does to her, the bench becomes a meeting place for a fascinating collection of passers-by: a neighbour, his ex-wife, a widow and her grown-up stepchildren. Before long they disrupt the intimate family moment with their own stories and disagreements. In their search for connection, this disparate group of people becomes ever more entangled in one another's lives. They share a deep wish to be happy together…

'The whole ensemble is magnificent' – De Groene Amsterdammer

Date: September 11, 2025 - September 28, 2025
Duration: 150 min, interval included
Genre: Theatre
Taal: Dutch

Time for Joy (Tid for glede, 2020) by the Norwegian writer Arne Lygre leaves no one unmoved. In two acts it explores relationships, patterns and the longing for togetherness, despite the burden of pain and loss.

Time for Joy is a comic, at times absurdist, but deeply emotional play that lovingly compels you to think about who we are to one another, about loneliness, loss and our continual search for happiness.

Eline Arbo

"Time for Joy is an extraordinarily beautiful play about the search for connection and how difficult that sometimes is. I cannot think of a better moment, or a greater necessity, to stage this production than now. At a time when we are struggling with feelings of alienation, we look for meaning in our connection with others. Not only in the world around us, but very close to home as well. As a company, as a house, we looked for new shared values and rediscovered the desire to return to what theatre is for us: an exercise in empathy. Deeply rooted in this house and in co-production with Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, we are making Time for Joy. An unmistakable voice of our time, theatre in its purest form; our celebration of being together."

Author Arne Lygre

The Norwegian playwright and novelist Arne Lygre (1968) is praised for his minimalist, emotionally intelligent and deeply human work. Through his unusual style of writing he dissects the banality of life. In sharp, witty, recognisable and at times downright funny dialogue he shows the intensity of our fears, desires, loneliness, loss and freedom. His plays are often set in an indeterminate time and place, and in that way they reveal the universal in our existence: the human being, the individual, who as part of a larger whole is shaped by a network of lives that constantly cross one another.

Mini documentary | The making of Time for Joy

Reviews

de Volkskrant

'Marieke Heebink in particular, as the mother, races like a whirlwind through her text, through any number of moods, but Ilke Paddenburg as her daughter is every bit as phenomenal.'

De Groene Amsterdammer

'The whole ensemble plays wonderfully in that self-aware, quirky and moving style.'

Theaterkrant

'Lygre's sharp, humorous and at the same time deeply moving dialogue comes across exceptionally well in Bianca van der Schoot's staging.'

Director Bianca van der Schoot

Bianca van der Schoot (Eindhoven, 1973) is a Dutch theatre-maker, performer and actor, known for her experimental and visual approach to theatre. She graduated from the Mime programme in Amsterdam in 1999 and has made up the artist duo Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot with Suzan Boogaerdt since 2000. Their work sits at the intersection of performance art, theatre and the visual arts, and explores themes such as the influence of visual culture and technology on people. Through a gender-aware lens, BVDS examines how different realities, whether virtual worlds or dream worlds, interface with the human user.