Working collectively and with a deeply rooted sense of joy for acting, this golden combination is the starting point for all productions by actors’ collective Wunderbaum. This theatre company has created internationally acclaimed productions for more than 20 years, in which humour, music and societal engagement come together masterly. Time and time again, the makers keep looking for unknown stories or stories that don’t receive enough attention. They work with performers, writers and makers that challenge them to reflect on urgent topics of our time including independence, white privilege, care for the elderly and the relentless pressure to be successful in our society. 

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Biography

The actors’s collective Wunderbaum consists of actors Maartje Remmers, Marleen Scholten, Matijs Jansen, Walter Bart and Wine Dierickx as well as designer Maarten van Otterdijk. This company is internationally rooted, but at the same time closely connected to Rotterdam. Theater Rotterdam has been their home base and alliance partner since 2010.

Productions by Wunderbaum often start with personal experiences of makers and their attitude towards current identity issues and political issues. Afterwards, they question this proactively and confront themselves with other perspectives. It is an indispensable strength of Wunderbaum to work with people from outside the world of theatre.

For example, Wunderbaum has made theatre performances with refugees from Syria, citizens in neighbourhoods and from choirs in Rotterdam in recent years. They have worked closely together with young people who were kept in detention centres, with senior citizens, and people with a distance to the labour market, volunteers, holders of a residence permit and people with various views from many different countries (from Brazil to Ukraine). Wunderbaum’s audience is made a part of this theatrical and sometimes vulnerable way of questioning themselves in a generous manner and often with a great dose of humour.