De Dingen die voorbijgaan

At center stage, two very old lovers await death, convinced that no one knows the horrible secret that binds them. Their children and grandchildren try in vain to free themselves from it; family burdens are always passed on underground. Ivo van Hove retains the stifling atmosphere and tragic aspect of the rigid Hague society depicted in Louis Couperus's novel. The stage, a waiting room or purgatory, is the space of all disillusionment, an abyss, imprisoning feelings that we no longer know whether they are calming down or running wild. In a pulsating resonance, a clock ticks away time. An ineluctable race... In black, the characters, like an ancient choir, carry within them an anguish that grips, blocks desires and suffocates aspirations. The sometimes delicate emotions are above all raw, often abrasive, with no respite for this trapped generational thread. Ivo van Hove, curious about the very contemporary intuitions of Louis Couperus, has chosen to reflect on the means of escaping one's destiny, one's heritage. Are there not other forms of relationship to be invented outside the classic family?

Poet and writer, Louis Couperus (1863-1923) is a major figure in Dutch literature. His psychological novels, influenced by the naturalists Zola and Flaubert, sharply criticize the rigorist society of The Hague and focus on fin-de-siècle themes of fate, decline and decadence.