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ENTER 1995 (picture used for publicity), size: 13 x 26 ft, 4 x 8 m, photo: Inez van Lamsweerde / Vinoodh Matadin © collection Groninger Museum

Mugmetdegoudentand creates projects for theatre and television and experiments with other disciplines and media in a continuous search to match ideas with the right format and medium. Mugmetdegoudentand is in fact busy with one ongoing project: the time is now / now is the moment

workmethod / historical background Mugmetdegoudentand was founded as a theatregroup in 1985 by director Jan Ritsema and a group of recently graduated actors. Mugmetdegoudentand makes theatre based on novels, newspaper articles, diaries, letters, documentaries, films, interviews, stories and the personal experiences of the makers themselves. This results in an unconventional style of drama, and unexpected vantage points for the viewer. In the course of their existence, the mug has developed a completely individual style of acting that can best be described as contemporary, vital, physical, humoristic, personal and open to the audience. During the first years special attention was paid to the adaptation of literary texts (Wolf, Goethe). Around 1990 a performance trilogy was created under the title plaatsbepalingen (orientation) in which the makers attempted to express and give form to their place in society and history. This brought forth a number of very socially committed and contemporary dramas. In the groups current performances the desire to create theatre about the here and now also remains a central theme. Departure point for these productions is the question: how to live in our fragmented and ambiguous reality and express a modern feeling of life. Time and time again attempts are made to bridge the gap between the inner and outer world by giving form to all possible descriptions of reality, exposing social mechanisms, critically assessing the obvious and cherishing human values. Through their use of a broad range of theatrical modes of expression, the performances of the mug, despite their charged subject matter, are accessible and exciting to the public and often a heart-warming experience. The exceptional fusion of form and content has won mugmetdegoudentand an unique place within the Dutch theatre scene, acknowledged by public and press alike. Currently, besides theatre projects, the mug also works in television and experiments with the use of other media and disciplines. The mug is continually searching for the right medium and format to suit its ideas. A project never stands by itself: one evolves from the other. This manner of working has led to collaborations with theatre and television makers, artists and designers, cooperating at the interface between theatre and other forms of art and media. Theatre is a departure point but not the terminus. (translation: )