About people who love each other but do not tolerate each other.

Welcome to the Doornenhof, a run-down villa in the 1980s. Father and widower Gijselhart lives there with his adult children. First one, then both. At the Doornenhof, each thinks he is locked up and that the other should be locked up as a matter of urgency.

Deeply conservative and obsessed with money and purity, Gijselhart is diametrically opposed to his offspring. Daughter Magda, nicknamed Prul, is unmarried and pregnant by a Jewish man and son Leendert returns from New York as an AIDS patient. Old wounds reopen.

A penetrating and still recognisable mirror

Forty years after the publication of Frans Kellendonk's controversial novel, director Koen Verheijden brings the story back to the stage. In his characteristic, layered language, Kellendonk captured a year in the life of the broken family Gijselhart. A family that grows into a penetrating mirror of polarised Dutch society at the end of the 20th century. And forty years later, that image is still surprisingly recognisable.

The Gijselhart family wants nothing more than to belong together, but the harder they try, the further they drift apart. Because as we watch this derailing family, the question inevitably arises: do we really think that we as a society are doing better than in Kellendonk's time?

out of 5 stars Koen Verheijden

"What fascinates me about 'Mystical Body' is how, in miniature, the Gijselhart family depicts the larger human community: looking for cohesion and connection, but drifting further and further apart - and all in that wonderfully unique language of Frans Kellendonk. When I first read the book, I knew immediately that I wanted to bring this novel to the stage. I knew it would be a challenge, but I really wanted to bring these elusive characters to life."

Credits

Directed by: Koen Verheijden
Text: Koen Verheijden, inspired by Mystical Body by Frans Kellendonk
Performance: Teunie de Brouwer, Michael Muller, Kirsten Mulder, Marley Verbeem
Directing assistance (internship) : Lisanne Pol
Dramaturgy: Thomas Lamers, Alyssa Oedit
Costume design: Hanne Pierrot
Stage design: Ascon de Nijs
Sound design: Sharon Harman
Lighting design: Niels Runderkamp

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