Why is our pain still not taken seriously? Why is our pleasure valued less? And why does the white male body remain the norm in healthcare? For centuries, the experiences of women and genderqueer people have been mystified in art, storytelling, and medical science. THE SCREAM examines what happens when we break through that lens and reclaim our own experiences.
In this multidisciplinary performance, Nastaran Razawi Khorasani, Melyn Chow, Francesca Lazzeri, Princess Isatu Hassan Bangura, and Milou van Duijnhoven bring to life a story that is both historical and urgently relevant. Across generations and different stages of life, they expose how pain and pleasure are suppressed, and explore what happens when the scream trapped inside the body is finally released.
Following Battlefield of Dreams, which explored the presence (or absence) of the desire to have children, director Floor Houwink ten Cate once again opens up an urgent and deeply personal medical-ethical issue. Featuring a text by Floor and Lotte Houwink ten Cate and Esther Duysker, (live) cinema, a groundbreaking choral composition by Annelinde Bruijs, and a performance installation by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck, THE SCREAM becomes an explosive theatrical experience and a powerful plea for bodily autonomy in relation to pain and pleasure.
English spoken.
About Floor Houwink ten Cate
Floor Houwink ten Cate (1987) is a transdisciplinary theatre maker, director, and writer. Her work moves between performance, music theatre, and cinema. Drawing on her background in film, she creates physical portraits that reveal intimate, often unspoken aspects of life, such as domestic violence and the fear of dying from illness or in a war zone. Her work is politically engaged, emotionally layered, and blends fiction with documentary. Through this hybrid approach, she creates unsettling encounters that open up space for reflection and dialogue.
After graduating from the Netherlands Film Academy and Utrecht University, she served as co-artistic director of the music theatre collective Nineties Productions from 2015 to 2020. With the collective, she won the BNG Bank Theatre Award in 2017, recognising emerging and innovative theatre makers. Her acclaimed electro-opera Merkel (2019) marked her directorial debut.
She subsequently created the highly praised productions One Man Show (2021), about toxic masculinity, and Sea of Silence (2022) at the international production house Frascati (NL). In collaboration with Katie Mitchell, Floor created the ecofeminist mini-opera A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (2022) for the Holland Festival. In 2023, she was selected for the Women Opera Makers Workshop of the prestigious Académie of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
Since 2023, Floor has been part of the artistic team at Theater Utrecht. There, she created the large-scale productions Atropa (2023), Panic Room (2024), and Battlefield of Dreams (2025). During the 2025–2026 season, she directed Brabo Leone by Sarah Janneh (a co-production by NITE, Theater Utrecht, and MusicalMakers) and The Actor by Florian Myjer. From 2025 to 2027, she is the recipient of the Fast Forward grant from the Fonds Podiumkunsten, supporting the international development of her work.
Performance dates
Credits
Concept, Film, Text & Direction: Floor Houwink ten Cate
Text: Esther Duysker, Lotte Houwink ten Cate
Performers: Princess Isatu Hassan Bangura, Nastaran Razawi Khorasani, Melyn Chow, Francesca Lazzeri, Milou van Duijnhoven
Set Design: Dennis Vanderbroeck
Music & Composition: Annelinde Bruijs
Campaign image: Bete van Meeuwen