Where fantasy writers create worlds with elves and trolls, Plankton does this with power sockets, pebbles, volcanoes, streetlights, plastic bags, and fire extinguishers.
In Around the Corner Lives a Bush, the group – Sonja van Ojen and Hendrik Kegels – brings a self-built miniature world to life. The audience sits around a giant paper model of a sleeping city and watches a wordless, visual performance.
The day begins: a trash bin falls over, a plastic bag gets stuck in a tree, and the crocuses open. In this magical performance for both young and old, the main roles are not played by people, but by all the other “inhabitants” of the city: the maple tree, the public toilet, the chimney, the beetles under the tiles, and the kiosk on the square.
A surprising universe unfolds, with dancing shopping carts and shy streetlights, supported by an emotional soundtrack by Frederik de Clercq.
Around the Corner Lives a Bush won the BNG Bank Theatre Prize 2020 and was shown at the Netherlands Theatre Festival 2021.
“A wonderful celebration of shopping carts in a parade, dancing apartment buildings, and a shy, flirting willow tree. The world, it turns out, does not need humans to have a party.” (NRC)
