At the O. theater festival, the modern woman takes a deep breath once again

The modern woman is a highly stressed being. You get that impression from two (completely different) performances at the O music theater festival. This is how the three women submit Tradwives the musical adhere to patriarchy in an attempt to make their world more orderly. They put their husbands on a pedestal and have little say themselves. The trio is hoeing in the vegetable garden, giving birth to just one baby, chatting about domestic chores. They take care of the kids at home while their husbands go on business trips.

The performance zooms in on three front doors, behind which these ‘tradwives’ (women who consciously choose ‘traditional’ gender roles) live. The turning point comes when one of them decides to leave for the big city to live as a ‘free woman’.

In Club Satelliet’s debut production, this oppressive world is designed in pastel colors. Tradwives is a classic musical, but with a wink. There are comic choreographies and meta moments in which the characters realize they are on stage. The lyrics and music are fluid and fast-paced, but the story lacks direction, especially towards the end. What does Satelliet actually want to say about these tradwives? The production feels fresh, but is ultimately parody.

From hyper-rational to emotional

In Noise by Club Gewalt, on location in the industrial Katoenhuis, characters also struggle with their place in a world. Stress levels are high, so take a deep breath, neigh along with laughter therapy or give your neighbor a long hug. The anti-stress workshop that kicks off the performance sets the tone: this will be a darting back and forth, bizarre performance. Guru Sanna (played with an identical outfit and wig by several performers) guides the audience through what stress is scientifically and how to get rid of it.

Because there is something going on in the world, as is evident from the absurd scenes that follow. The Sanna suits are exchanged for costumes with body parts stitched onto them, and the workshop leader is aggressively questioned about who she actually is. The situation is spiraling out of control, beats pounding, lights flashing. The performance outlines the conflict between a mother, child and career and shows war crashing against the walls of our daily lives.

Noise is a fragmentary performance that can jump from hyper-rational to emotional, from monologue to music. In layered compositions, vocals mix with electronic violence. Gewalt encourages the audience to wake up: do something, tackle your problems, stand up against injustice! Noise feels like a pamphlet against petty nonsense, a call to fight against what causes the high tension. This activism is at odds with the situation Tradwiveswhere the suffering is limited to a forgotten lunch box or malfunctioning pumping device.