Geography: Europe > Western Europe > Netherlands
Year: 2021
Produced by: Kobra Theaterproducties
Creative Team: Adapted by Esther Scheldwacht; directed by Olivier Diepenhorst; performed by Esther Scheldwacht, Kees Hulst and an ensemble.
Synopsis: Lichter dan ik follows Piranti, a Javanese woman living under Dutch colonial rule in the nineteenth century. Renamed Isah by a Dutch soldier, she becomes his njai, a domestic worker and concubine whose position carries no legal security. The production centres the Indonesian woman who gives up her maternal role to offer a better future with her daughter. Her daughter’s lighter skin tone may provide access to greater social status, but only if the child is separated from her mother. Although the principal action occurs before migration to the Netherlands, its structure addresses the family histories later carried by Indisch communities. Piranti tells her story towards the daughter taken from her, conveying a struggle many Indonesian women faced during colonial rule.
Source: Kobra Theaterproducties, official production page and press material: https://www.kobratheater.nl/lichter-dan-ik/ Theaterkrant, production review hosted by Isala Theater: https://www.isalatheater.nl/cms_files/File/Lichter%20dan%20ik%20-%20Theaterkrant.pdf